In the lush and magical tradition of Naomi Novik’s award-winning Uprooted comes this riveting debut from brilliant young writer Callie Bates—whose boundless imagination places her among the finest authors of fantasy fiction, including Sarah J. Maas and Sabaa Tahir. Lady Elanna is fiercely devoted to the king who raised her like a daughter. But when he dies under mysterious circumstances, Elanna … mysterious circumstances, Elanna is accused of his murder—and must flee for her life.
Returning to the homeland of magical legends she has forsaken, Elanna is forced to reckon with her despised, estranged father, branded a traitor long ago. Feeling a strange, deep connection to the natural world, she also must face the truth about the forces she has always denied or disdained as superstition—powers that suddenly stir within her.
But an all-too-human threat is drawing near, determined to exact vengeance. Now Elanna has no choice but to lead a rebellion against the kingdom to which she once gave her allegiance. Trapped between divided loyalties, she must summon the courage to confront a destiny that could tear her apart.
Don’t miss any of Callie Bates’s magical Waking Land trilogy:
THE WAKING LAND • THE MEMORY OF FIRE • THE SOUL OF POWER
Praise for The Waking Land
“Callie Bates has written an exciting and involving first book, and she is clearly a writer of real talent.”—Terry Brooks
“A heartbreaking, enchanting, edge-of-the-seat read that held me captive from start to finish!”—Tamora Pierce
“The Waking Land is all about rising to challenges, and it succeeds wonderfully.”—Charlaine Harris
“A simmering tale of magic that builds to a raging inferno, and hits like a cross between Brandon Sanderson and Pierce Brown.”—Scott Sigler
“This superior novel blends passionate romance and sweeping magic. . . . Bates has a delicate, precise touch with human and superhuman relationships.”—Publishers Weekly
“A wonderfully stunning debut . . . Bates’ clear, captivating, imaginative storytelling and vivid, distinctive characters will cause readers to soak up every word.”—RT Book Reviews
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This was an okay read – there wasn’t anything wrong with it, it just plodded along rather more slowly than I would have liked… The beginning was strong, then it felt like it needed a hefty edit to keep the pacing even and the plot moving forward. There were interesting Celtic-feeling elements, and I really enjoyed the earth magic component as well as the tripartite governing concept with the steward of the land and the mountains and the king as an interesting spin on separation of powers. The murderer was pretty easy to figure out early on, and despite the attempts at weaving confusion as to who was good and who could not be trusted, there was not much mystery in that regard either. There were no epic fail moments or flaws, but I found myself skimming at multiple points because the story would drag – and even if I skimmed several chapters, I never had difficulty catching up. To me, that suggests that a fairly heavy edit could have tightened this into a really well-paced adventure…
Rob Roy meets sorcery in this fantasy about a wild-and-wooly nation subdued by its more “civilized” neighbor and fighting for its independence. The protagonist was made a hostage as a child in order to keep her father from fomenting revolution. She discovers that she has magical abilities to manipulate nature, which is forbidden in the society she grew up in as hostage. The characters are intelligent, aware of their own conflicts and shortcomings. There’s also the romantic hero– is he a rogue or a hero, anyway? The plot drags at some points but the descriptions of countryside, individuals and even fighting are masterly. Good escape reading for adults!
Easy reader. Not one of the best but still entertaining for price.
Although I struggled to get in to The Waking Land at first, sticking it out proved the right decision! I really loved the world that Bates built and the magic that filled the story. The Waking Land has beautiful imagery and story-telling that once they captivate the reader, bind them to the story until they are through.
This book takes readers into a beautiful fantasy. Callie Bates’ way with words made each setting feel real. Definitely recommend!
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.
I really wanted to win this book, first of love the cover. It sucked me in.
Lady Elanna of Caeris is taken hostage by the king of Eren, to make sure her father and his cohorts would not attempt to overthrow the throne. As a ward in his court she grows up learning the language and culture of Eren. She is close to the king and has no desire to return to her country. She wants to travel overseas to study botany. Magic has been outlawed across the empire and magicians are tortured and killed. Elanna not only tries to hide that she is from Caeris but also that she carries magic. She can make plants grow using her blood.
I can’t wait for book 2. This was a Fantastic read.
Good world building & interesting story concept.
I really enjoyed this book. It wasn’t quite Novik’s Uprooted, because it did drag on a bit in places, but I rarely wanted to put it down. The Waking Land is the debut novel of Callie Bates. It also is the first in a series, so it has to set the scene, control the information we receive to not spoil the following books, and introduce most of the characters. Even if they don’t play a big role in this book, we should assume they’ll be important down the line. Until I learned that this is part of a larger whole, I was rather irritated that certain characters were mentioned so frequently, but they never did anything. It made them seem really distant, and pretty flat. However, getting to the end of the book and realizing its left way open to a sequel [The Memory of Fire: The Waking Land Book II] in a way that previously mentioned characters will have to come out of the shadows makes me really happy.
Away from a book that hasn’t come out yet and back to this book, I really enjoyed watching the protagonist grow up in this book. She goes from being kept in the dark, or asleep if you will, to having her eyes opened to the politics of a civil war very quickly to lead a rebellion. There is a lot of inner dialogue in this book, but in my opinion it really helps to solidify the war of her emotions to create a mirror of her and the land waking up and going through its own trials of war. This inner dialogue is really what seems to take the longest to get through in this book, but truly it adds a lovely parallel between Elanna and the land itself.
I also really enjoy land magic. I love the Celtic traditions of the land being a source of life and having a life of its own. It just makes me wish we could be that close to nature again. I’m not saying that we shed the luxuries of indoor plumbing and electric lights and, Heaven forbid, the refrigerator (don’t think I’d remain sane without my fridge), but I do wish we would take better care of our land and that it would give us an inner strength and be as comforting as it is in this book.
Again I’m getting off topic, so I should probably wrap this up before I really go crazy talking about it and spoil the book. It was a really good read. Yes, it was slow going, but it was still addictive. No, it didn’t top my opinion of Uprooted , but I enjoyed it so well that waiting for the sequel will be a nightmare. I want to really recommend giving this book a chance, and when it gets a little slow just keep going. It is worth it.