Roar of Sky Is an Epic Story of Empire, and One Woman’s Journey
Roar of Sky
Paperback $16.99
Roar of Sky
By Beth Cato
In Stock Online
Paperback $16.99
Beth Cato’s Blood of Earth trilogy—Breath of Earth, Call of Fire, and the latest and final volume, Roar of Sky—is an incredibly active and peripatetic series. While Roar of Sky does cover at least as much ground as its predecessors—our heroine Ingrid, her lover Cy, and their friend and pilot Fenris move from Hawaii to California to Arizona and several points between—there’s something almost internal about it, contemplative and personal. After the literal pyrotechnics of the climax of Call of Fire, Ingrid is bruised and hurt, seeking answers to deeper questions of who she is and where she came from. Even as she struggles to comprehend her own origins, she grapples with limited mobility and persistent pain from her last encounter with the antagonist, Ambassador Blum—physical disabilities that may likely be permanent. She is coming to terms with her origins, even as she learns —painstakingly, painfully—how to go forward.
Beth Cato’s Blood of Earth trilogy—Breath of Earth, Call of Fire, and the latest and final volume, Roar of Sky—is an incredibly active and peripatetic series. While Roar of Sky does cover at least as much ground as its predecessors—our heroine Ingrid, her lover Cy, and their friend and pilot Fenris move from Hawaii to California to Arizona and several points between—there’s something almost internal about it, contemplative and personal. After the literal pyrotechnics of the climax of Call of Fire, Ingrid is bruised and hurt, seeking answers to deeper questions of who she is and where she came from. Even as she struggles to comprehend her own origins, she grapples with limited mobility and persistent pain from her last encounter with the antagonist, Ambassador Blum—physical disabilities that may likely be permanent. She is coming to terms with her origins, even as she learns —painstakingly, painfully—how to go forward.
We first met Ingrid Carmichael in the weeks leading up to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, which leveled 80 percent of the city and still ranks as the largest loss of life from a natural disaster in California’s history. But while the earthquake may the same, the California it takes place in is profoundly different: this United States has merged with Japan into a larger empire called the United Pacific, which has since waged war on China. As a nation at war, the Unified Pacific is in the grips of dangerous xenophobia against anyone who isn’t Japanese or white American (but especially against Chinese-Americans). As the dark-skinned daughter of a prominent geomancer, Ingrid is both insulated from public animus, and deep in the heart of a system that devalues and judges her. Because Ingrid has a secret: she is also a geomancer.
Breath of Earth
Paperback $14.99
Breath of Earth
By Beth Cato
In Stock Online
Paperback $14.99
Geomancy, Reiki, kitsune, qilin, sylphs, and all manner of mythical powers and strange creatures exist in world of the Unified Pacific. Ingrid’s closest relationship is with geomancy, a sensitivity and mastery over the seismic power of the earth. This power can be siphoned off by geomancers and locked into crystals, which are then used like batteries to power everything from lightbulbs to dirigibles. This is not just an alternate history, but an alternate reality. Women are not supposed to be able to work geomancy, so when Ingrid’s powers of geomancy manifest during the earthquake, it thrusts her into dangerous geopolitics (pun absolutely intended.)
Geomancy, Reiki, kitsune, qilin, sylphs, and all manner of mythical powers and strange creatures exist in world of the Unified Pacific. Ingrid’s closest relationship is with geomancy, a sensitivity and mastery over the seismic power of the earth. This power can be siphoned off by geomancers and locked into crystals, which are then used like batteries to power everything from lightbulbs to dirigibles. This is not just an alternate history, but an alternate reality. Women are not supposed to be able to work geomancy, so when Ingrid’s powers of geomancy manifest during the earthquake, it thrusts her into dangerous geopolitics (pun absolutely intended.)
Roar of Sky begins in Hawaii, where Ingrid, Cy, and Fenris have fled after their confrontation with the kitsune (a fox deity, of sorts) who is living as a high-ranking official in the United Pacific, and absolutely dedicated to the destruction of all Chinese people—both in America and Asia. Ingrid was told by her father that she has a familial relationship with the Hawaiian goddess Pele, so she braves the active geology of the Hawaiian islands (as a geomancer, this kind of seismic activity can be deadly) in order to find out more about her kin. Ingrid requires a wheelchair at times, her nervous system burned out by the overflow of magic she used to protect herself from the kitsune previously. Her visit to the crater of Kilauea is tactile and detailed, with the kind of description that feels lived in. She thrills at her feelings of connection with the landscape, even while acknowledging she will never quite be Hawaiian, even if it is her family’s heritage.
Call of Fire
Paperback $14.99
Call of Fire
By Beth Cato
In Stock Online
Paperback $14.99
Her interactions with Madame Pele are even more interesting. I’ve seen a lot of characters damaged by magic who then drag around for a while until they are suddenly healed. Magic takes, then it gives back. But that is not what happens for Ingrid, even while she treats with goddesses, qilin, and other forces of nature. Ingrid’s legs are permanently damaged, and no amount of narrative convenience or wishful thinking will heal them. Cy and Fenris work tirelessly to fit her with braces and other helpful apparatuses, but even those that work force Ingrid to adjust to her new physical limitations. Never have stockings been more annoying. In a real way, Ingrid is learning to walk again, even as she’s in a flight, and then fight, for her life and those she loves.
Her interactions with Madame Pele are even more interesting. I’ve seen a lot of characters damaged by magic who then drag around for a while until they are suddenly healed. Magic takes, then it gives back. But that is not what happens for Ingrid, even while she treats with goddesses, qilin, and other forces of nature. Ingrid’s legs are permanently damaged, and no amount of narrative convenience or wishful thinking will heal them. Cy and Fenris work tirelessly to fit her with braces and other helpful apparatuses, but even those that work force Ingrid to adjust to her new physical limitations. Never have stockings been more annoying. In a real way, Ingrid is learning to walk again, even as she’s in a flight, and then fight, for her life and those she loves.
As Ingrid, Cy, and Fenris move through the United Pacific, they encounter and re-encounter people who are pivotal to both their pasts and their futures—everyone from Theodore Roosevelt (recast as ambassador in this reality) to Ingrid and Cy’s fathers, mentors, sisters, and friends. Ingrid has always been a likable character, though her naïveté occasionally rankled. That sense of innocence has been dampened by the real limitations she’s encountered, though it never quite goes away entirely. (Ingrid, after all, has been somewhat sheltered.) Some would call not naïveté but optimism. It is weakness and a strength, and both are put on full display in Roar of Sky. This trilogy is as much the story of empire as it is of one woman, and her journey both within and without.