Dasha is a gift from the gods. Only she’s not very gifted. Bronze Medal, Epic Fantasy, Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2018.Finalist, Golden Book Awards 2018. Official Selection, E-Book Fantasy, New Apple Book Awards 2018. Second Place, Epic Fantasy, Virtual FantasyCon 2017. Eighteen years ago, Dasha’s mother made a bargain with the gods. She would bear a gods-touched child, one who would stand on … ago, Dasha’s mother made a bargain with the gods. She would bear a gods-touched child, one who would stand on the threshold between the worlds, human and divine. Dasha is that child, now almost ready to become a woman, and one day take her mother’s place as Empress of all of Zem’.
But Dasha is shy, lonely, and one of the least magically inclined girls in the Known World. Instead she has fits and uncontrollable visions. When she sets off with her father on her first journey away from her home kremlin, she hopes she will finally find someone who can help her come into her powers. But those whom she finds only want to use her instead. What will it take for her to unlock the abilities hidden within her, and take up her proper place in the world?
The sequel to the award-winning novel The Midnight Land, The Breathing Sea returns to the land of Zem’, where animals speak, trees walk, and women rule. Filled with allusions to Russian history, literature, and fairy tales, this subversive combination of satire and high fantasy will appeal to fans of Deathless and The Bear and the Nightingale.
With discussion questions at the end.
Reading order for the Zemnian Series:
The Zemnian Series: Slava’s Story
The Midnight Land I: The Flight
The Midnight Land II: The Gift
The Zemnian Series: Dasha’s Story
The Breathing Sea I: Burning
The Breathing Sea II: Drowning
The Zemnian Series: Valya’s Story
The Dreaming Land I: The Challenge
The Dreaming Land II: The Journey
The Dreaming Land III: The Sacrifice
more
The magical dominion of Zem’ is revisited with a new twist! The heiress to the throne is found in the naïve and initially inept young Dasha in training. She is not what is expected, disappoints, and struggles. Another unfortunate turn is the Gods have not been straightforward in upholding their bargain with her Empress mother. Dasha’s travails are only beginning as she embarks on a journey with her father beyond the borders of her home Kremlin. However, this is almost an escape so that she can discover just who and what she really is…and meant to be as a powerful woman in her own right. Those that she encounters along the way can be generous, timely, hidden, deceptive, and even downright evil and this holds for those Dasha has trusted in the past. The Russian/Slavic flavor to this storytelling is nuanced and even enchanting! Magic and craft are not what they seem and neither is the “Breathing Sea” or the “Burning”….
“I’m afraid’. “Of course you are. And rightly so. If there was nothing to fear it wouldn’t be worth doing. The trick is doing something dangerous without succumbing to the danger.”
Dasha is the Tzarinova, daughter and heir to the Wooden Throne of ’Zem. She I known as a gods-touched one: who will stand at the passage between worlds and in doing so, bring the kingdom together as whole. But right now, she’s still a young woman close to adulthood who has much to learn. The lessons may not be as boring as her tutors seem to teach her. Perhaps, the lessons of experience are those which will be more life-transforming.
Dasha’s father is blessed to be her guide around ‘Zem. Oleg himself has learned plenty through experiences he doesn’t really need to share. However, he is eager to share what he knows with his daughter. He has no idea what SHE might teach him as well.
This is some book, and it’s only the first of 2 volumes. It is a book I won a few years back; made a stab at reading and gave up; and now I’ve got to follow Dasha’s adventures until they resolve. Written within the shadow of good Russian folktales, E.P. Clark is adding to the storehouse of epic journey fables that have the fate of the world of the characters in their clutches. This first book could trigger someone dealing with trauma resolved or otherwise. However, the author is gently supportive of the characters involved, although leaves us with a major choice that Dasha must make. Would we make the same if faced with it? I guess we’ll have to read “The Breathing Sea:Drowning”to see. 5/5
[disclaimer: I won this book in an author giveaway. I have chosen to read and review it8]
“I’m afraid’. “Of course you are. And rightly so. If there was nothing to fear it wouldn’t be worth doing. The trick is doing something dangerous without succumbing to the danger.”
Dasha is the Tzarinova, daughter and heir to the Wooden Throne of ’Zem. She I known as a gods-touched one: who will stand at the passage between worlds and in doing so, bring the kingdom together as whole. But right now, she’s still a young woman close to adulthood who has much to learn. The lessons may not be as boring as her tutors seem to teach her. Perhaps, the lessons of experience are those which will be more life-transforming.
Dasha’s father is blessed to be her guide around ‘Zem. Oleg himself has learned plenty through experiences he doesn’t really need to share. However, he is eager to share what he knows with his daughter. He has no idea what SHE might teach him as well.
This is some book, and it’s only the first of 2 volumes. It is a book I won a few years back; made a stab at reading and gave up; and now I’ve got to follow Dasha’s adventures until they resolve. Written within the shadow of good Russian folktales, E.P. Clark is adding to the storehouse of epic journey fables that have the fate of the world of the characters in their clutches. This first book could trigger someone dealing with trauma resolved or otherwise. However, the author is gently supportive of the characters involved, although leaves us with a major choice that Dasha must make. Would we make the same if faced with it? I guess we’ll have to read “The Breathing Sea:Drowning”to see. 5/5
[disclaimer: I won this book in an author giveaway. I have chosen to read and review it]