Alma Alexander – författare

A sweeping epic set in medieval China; it is the story of a group of women, the Jin-Shei sisterhood, who form a uniquely powerful circle that transcends class and social custom.They are bound together by a declaration of loyalty that transcends all other vows, even those with the gods, by their own secret language, passed from mother to daughter, by the knowledge that some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to enable others to fulfil their destiny.The sisterhood we meet run from the Emperor's sister to the street-beggar, from the trainee warrior in the Emperor's Guard to the apprentice healer, from the artist to the traveller-girl, herself an illegitimate daughter of an emperor and seen as a threat to the throne. And as one of them becomes Dragon Empress, her determination to hold power against the sages of the temple, against the marauding forces from other kingdoms, drags the sisterhood into a dangerous world of court intrigue, plot and counterplot, and brings them into conflict with each other from which only the one who remains true to all the vows she made at the very beginning to the dying Princess Empress can rescue them.An amazing and unusual book, based on some historical fact, full of drama, adventure and conflict like a Shakespearean history play, it's a novel about kinship and a society of women, of mysticism, jealousy, fate, destiny, all set in the wonderful, swirling background of medieval China.

Perfect for fans of Memoirs of a Geisha and Empress Orchid – `The Embers of Heaven’ is a magical epic, with delightful characters, an intriguing scenario and a real feeling of place and history. It has a wonderful combination of character, romantic lives, and spiritual quest, set against a credible historical background.In `The Secrets of Jin-Shei,’ eight women pledge themselves as sisters in the name of jin-shei, the unbreakable bond, the promise that lasts a lifetime. This sisterhood shapes their lives, their country and their world. `The Embers of Heaven’ begins four hundred years later. In eighteenth-century Syai, and its capital city of Linh-an, things have changed beyond recognition.On the face of it, women are more equal than they have ever been. But the men run the machines, the factories, and the technology. Women have lost the ability to weave their fates and influence the course of events. The foundation of an empire once rested on jin-shei and its customs. It connected women from every walk of life and formed a bond that empowered every woman who swore the oath. The advancement of printing, the developments of technology and the changes in society seem to have improved the daily lives of the underclass, but women have been stripped of this sacred pact.Amais is heir to her poet-ancestress's manuscripts and journals. The journals are all in jin-ashu, the women's tongue, taught sketchily to Amais by her mother. Amais has the clear vision of an outsider looking in. Combined with her deep and instinctive bond to her ancestors and her culture, she determines to reinvent the Women's Country and bring the jin-shei back. But just as her crusade begins, she and her family are caught up in the whirlwind of the Golden Rising – a people's revolution that is fated to destroy much that was once valuable, gracious and beautiful.

A sweeping epic set in medieval China; it is the story of a group of women, the Jin-Shei sisterhood, who form a uniquely powerful circle that transcends class and social custom.They are bound together by a declaration of loyalty that transcends all other vows, even those with the gods, by their own secret language, passed from mother to daughter, by the knowledge that some of them will have to pay the ultimate sacrifice to enable others to fulfil their destiny.The sisterhood we meet run from the Emperor's sister to the street-beggar, from the trainee warrior in the Emperor's Guard to the apprentice healer, from the artist to the traveller-girl, herself an illegitimate daughter of an emperor and seen as a threat to the throne. And as one of them becomes Dragon Empress, her determination to hold power against the sages of the temple, against the marauding forces from other kingdoms, drags the sisterhood into a dangerous world of court intrigue, plot and counterplot, and brings them into conflict with each other from which only the one who remains true to all the vows she made at the very beginning to the dying Princess Empress can rescue them.An amazing and unusual book, based on some historical fact, full of drama, adventure and conflict like a Shakespearean history play, it's a novel about kinship and a society of women, of mysticism, jealousy, fate, destiny, all set in the wonderful, swirling background of medieval China.

The International Bestselling Sequel to The Secrets of Jin-sheiFour hundred years after the events in The Secrets of Jin-shei, the Syai Empire is on the brink of civil war. A new voice preaching equality promises hope for the downtrodden, but the ensuing people's revolution brings terror, reeducation camps, and a chance of brutal retribution or even death to anyone seen as embracing the old ways.An outsider and a child of two worlds, Amais searches her ancestral home, the land of Syai, for the lost magical bond of jin-shei, the women's oath. Her quest will bring her to the very man who may destroy her and her family… and who has an improbable hold on her heart. As individuals, they are antagonists, even enemies—and yet, as two halves of a whole, they are the last hope for the survival of Syai…

NOT VALHALLA. NOT ODIN'S GATHERING PLACE FOR GODS AND IMMORTALS. VAL HALL, HOME AND LAST SANCTUARY FOR RETIRED SUPERHEROES, THIRD CLASS. Val Hall, raised by the vision and devotion of one man for others of his kind… in the wreckage of the world left behind in the ashes of the conflagration of what they called the Great War.  Men and women in whom an extraordinary moment released one singular extraordinary power, gathered under the definition of Superheroes (Third Class), could gather here in the twilight of their lives in search of security, contentment, care, and peace – they could come here to find, and take shelter with, others of their kind.From those who could know the unknowable, release gifts trapped in other minds, free ancient memories with a single touch, lead their kin back to the Promised Land, or face down a volcano, their powers are banked – until the instant in which they are kindled into something unforgettable. These are ordinary people, living ordinary lives. They could be your grandmother, your brother, your neighbor, your friend. They could be you.Val Hall is here for all who have need of it.These are the stories from the even years of Val Hall's century. Look for the companion volume, "e;Val Hall: The Odd Years"e; for more stories of valor and grace.

NOT VALHALLA. NOT ODIN'S GATHERING PLACE FOR GODS AND IMMORTALS.VAL HALL, HOME AND LAST SANCTUARY FOR RETIRED SUPERHEROES, THIRD CLASS.Val Hall, raised by the vision and devotion of one man for others of his kind… in the wreckage of the world left behind in the ashes of the conflagration of what they called the Great War. Men and women in whom an extraordinary moment released one singular extraordinary power, gathered under the definition of Superheroes (Third Class), could gather here in the twilight of their lives in search of security, contentment, care, and peace – they could come here to find, and take shelter with, others of their kind.From those who can use the power of their voice to make others believe anything they say, or those whose task it was to turn annihilation from their people at any cost, or stand against the storm to protect the ones they love, or walk with the dead and glimpse the world beyond, their powers are banked – until the instant in which they are kindled into something unforgettable. These are ordinary people, living ordinary lives. They could be your grandmother, your brother, your neighbor, your friend. They could be you.Val Hall is here for all who have need of it.These are the stories from the odd years of Val Hall's century. Look for the companion volume, "e;Val Hall: The Even Years"e; for more stories of valor and grace.

Computers were impervious to magic - that was the rule. Right until all the rules stopped applying, and dangerous spam emails carrying real spells with real consequences began to fly.It is up to Thea Winthrop and her friends to find out what is happening... and it is Thea, alone, who will face some of the most difficult choices of her young life as she faces down her old nemesis, the grasping Alphiri who have always wanted a piece of her, and a new adversary... who is disturbingly like herself...

Something is very wrong with the world of magic.Thea Winthrop, Dougble Seventh and the world's newest and shiniest Elemental mage, is in her first year of studies at a prestigious university when she gets caught up again in a crisis in which she needs to take up the defense of her kind.This time, accompanied by Corey the Trickster and Nikola Tesla as well as her friends from the Last Ditch School who have all found theor own wings, Thea has to go back to the beginning of everything as she grapples with the deepest mysteries of her own existence... when she has to face down her nemesis, the Alphiri Queen, and rekindle the magic of humankind at its origins.

Thea Winthrop, Double Seventh, has been a conundrum to her magical world - first she was the Girl Who Couldn't, unable to do any magic at all, and then she bewildered the ultimate authorities of her world, the Federal Bureau of Magic, with the apparently random nature of her gifts.Right until she came face to face with the legacy of Nikola Tesla, the Wizard of the West and the only quad-Elemental mage in human history, and heard him call her his equal...