The Burning City

by Johnson

Overview

In The Burning City, Alaya Dawn Johnson continues the trilogy begun with her debut, Racing the Dark, delving deeper into the world of magic wielded by women who understand the dark trade-offs of power and sacrifice. Lana, the heroine, has become the black ange l —a harbinger of destruction unheard of in the islands for 500 years. Nui'ahi, the sleeping volcano of the great city Essel, has erupted. In the chaos, the city is reshaping itself and violence threatens from all corners. A rebel movement has formed in the destroyed heart of the city, determined to oust Kohaku, the mad Mo'i of Essel. Lana wants no part of the rebels' cause — the death spirit still chases her, and the great witch Akua has kidnapped Lana's mother. But the more Lana looks for her mother, the more she is drawn into the city's political conflicts. As Kohaku descends deeper into madness, determined to subdue the city by any means necessary, his wife has run away to the fire temple, where she too is slowly converted to the rebel's cause. When long-running tensions spill over into civil war, Lana must make her hardest decision yet: her mother's life, or a city's freedom?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781572846685
Publisher:	Agate
Publication date:	07/20/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	350
File size:	426 KB

About the Author

Alaya Dawn Johnson was born in 1982 and graduated from Columbia University, where she studied East Asian languages and culture, and lived in Japan on a study abroad program, where she began this book. She has published short fiction in several magazines, and two of her stories were republished in the anthologies Year’s Best SF 11 and Year’s Best Fantasy 6. She lives in New York.

Editorial Reviews

Johnson returns to the fascinating island world of 2007's Racing the Dark, where blood sacrifice can gain the favor of powerful spirits. Lana is no longer a simple island girl but a Black Angel, marked with black wings by the wind spirit. Now living amid the refugees and ruins of capital city Essel, devastated by volcanic eruption, Lana seeks her mother, who has been kidnapped by the witch Akua. Her only clue is a strange black book given to her by one of Akua's spirits. Meanwhile, Essel roils with rebellion led by a religious fringe movement that wants to bring down the ruler, the Mo'i. Many think the Mo'i has lost control of Nui'ahi's fire spirit, but Lana fears the Mo'i caused the eruption himself. Events in Essel are interwoven with those recorded long ago in Akua's black book, creating an absorbing, complex plot. (July)

Publishers Weekly