Title: White
Heart of Justice
Series: Noon
Onyx
Author: Jill
Archer
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
Date of
Publication: May 27, 2014
ISBN-10:
0425257177
ISBN-13:
978-0425257173
ASIN: B00EOARZP0
Number of pages:
304
Word Count:
95,000
Cover Artist:
Jason Chan
BLURB supplied by Bewitching Blog Tours
Since Lucifer
claimed victory at Armageddon, demons, angels, and humans have coexisted in
uneasy harmony. Those with waning magic are trained to maintain peace and
order. But hostilities are never far from erupting…
After years of
denying her abilities, Noon Onyx, the first woman in history to wield waning
magic, has embraced her power. She’s won the right to compete in the
prestigious Laurel Crown Race—an event that will not only earn her the respect
of her peers but also, if she wins, the right to control her future.
However, Noon’s
task is nearly impossible: retrieve the White Heart of Justice, a mythical
sword that disappeared hundreds of years ago. The sword is rumored to be hidden
in a dangerous region of Halja that she is unlikely to return from. But Noon’s
life isn’t the only thing hanging in the balance. The sword holds an awesome
power that, in the wrong hands, could reboot the apocalypse—and Noon is the
only one who can prevent Armageddon from starting again…
BUY LINKS
EXCERPT
Prologue
I
can’t be with you anymore. That’s what she’d said. Six words that had become
sixty then six hundred then six thousand . . . sixty thousand . . . six million
. . . reverberating in his head, bouncing around inside his brain, driving him
absolutely mad. There were no other words. No other memories. Only that last
one of her. Standing at the edge of the oozy stew of the destroyed keep’s moat,
flanked by two Angels, one preternaturally beautiful, the other full of
purpose. The same purpose he’d had until those six words stripped him of it.
Flying
out, he’d barely cleared the wreckage of the keep. His heart beat against the
walls of his massive chest, and his monstrous wings beat against the infinite,
empty sky, but the beats were slow and grew slower still. Slower. Until finally
. . .
Stop.
He
made it across the river and then dropped like a ten-ton stone, crashing into
the brush, breaking tree limbs and a wing. He lay there amongst the blackening
scrub refusing to shift back into human form.
Man’s
thoughts were unwelcome.
In
time, the rogares came. Water wraiths. He killed them all. And then sickened by
the smell of blood and meat he couldn’t—wouldn’t—consume, he left his nesting
place. By then, the wing had healed, but unnaturally, so that flying straight
was impossible. For days, he traveled in circles, never getting far. It wasn’t
just the wing. The yearning to return to her was nearly unbearable. The
emptiness inside of him an abyss.
Was
she still in the Shallows? If he could just . . .
But
then he remembered the Angels. And the look on her face when she’d said the six
words. And the feelings in her signature. She’d need more than mere weeks for
them to abate. She might need months. Hopefully, not years. Years meant nothing
to him, but they did to her. And then the reminder that her time was more
precious than his drove his yearning to a new level of ferocity. Ruthlessly, he
tamped it down. He realized then that it might be best to return to man’s
thoughts. After all, she was a woman.
And
he wanted her back.
Chapter 1
“Glashia
calls Noon the ballista.” Waldron Seknecus’ low voice rumbled through the
Gridiron, a deep, cavernous underground space used by the upper years at St.
Lucifer’s for sparring. “Because of how she fights now. Watch.”
He
was speaking to three other spectators: my father, Karanos Onyx, executive of
the Demon Council and the man who would ultimately employ all of the magic
users who trained here at St. Luck’s; Friedrich Vanderlin, an Archangel who was
the dean of Guardians over at the Joshua School, the Angel academy we shared a
campus with; and a woman who looked unsettlingly familiar to me, though I
couldn’t remember when we’d met or who she was. I cleared my mind and
concentrated on my opponent, Ludovicus Mischmetal, who preferred the moniker
“Vicious” for short. He was a second year Maegester-in-Training at Euryale University.
We were competing against one another in the New Babylon MIT rank matches,
which St. Luck’s was hosting this year.
All
second-year MITs were required to compete. The top-ranked MITs from each school
would then be eligible to compete in the Laurel Crown Race. The object of the
race was to bring back an assigned target. Targets were either rogare demons or
priceless artifacts that needed to be recovered. Participation in the Laurel
Crown Race was voluntary, but the MIT who returned to New Babylon with his (or
in my case, her) target before any of the others, won the coveted Laurel Crown.
Winning the Laurel Crown often set a future Maegester up for life because
winners could choose where they wanted to spend their fourth-semester
residency. And ofttimes, those residencies turned into permanent positions.
Everyone else would receive offers, but it would be the Council that decided
which of those residency positions they accepted.
Last
semester, we’d been given our first field assignment. It was an assignment that
had been full of rogare demon attacks and other lethal situations. That
assignment had lasted a mere three months and I’d barely survived it. My
residency would last for twice as long, so I was well aware of how important
the residency venue would be. Winning the right to choose where I spent next
semester, not to mention who I would be working for, would go far in preserving
not just my happiness, but also my life. The Maegester who was judging the
match, a middle-aged man with thinning, ginger-colored hair and a near
permanent frown, called out for us to begin.
I’d
watched Vicious spar with other MITs. He was smart. His infliction of pain
would be very calculated, very precise. There was nothing personal about his
desire to beat me. He just wanted to win the match so that he could retain his
current Primoris ranking at Euryale and compete for the Laurel Crown. Of
course, I was similarly motivated.
Vicious
gave me a curt bow, his long, black, razor-cut bangs briefly falling forward
before he shook them back and used his waning magic to fire up a weapon, a
flaming broadsword. It hissed and spit with fury in the damp air of the
Gridiron as Vicious raised it toward me in an opening invitation to spar.
As a
sparring partner, Vicious looked fairly intimidating. His front teeth were
shiny, silver, and sharply pointed (likely, his real ones had been knocked out
in fights) and he was much larger than me. He wore the usual black leather
training pants and vest, but he’d elected to go shirtless underneath the vest.
I guessed it was an intentional show of muscle, literally. He flexed his
forearms and grinned at me, his message clear: I might be a woman playing a
man’s game, but he wasn’t going to spare me any blows.
That
suited me fine. Sparing me blows wouldn’t win me the match.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Jill Archer writes dark, genre-bending fantasy from rural Maryland. Her novels include Dark Light of Day, Fiery Edge of Steel, and White Heart of Justice. She loves cats, coffee, books, movies, day tripping, and outdoor adventuring.
What is your name, where were you born
and where do you live now?
Jill Archer: born in Kansas City,
Kansas; currently living in rural Maryland
What is the name of your latest book,
and if you had to summarize it in less than 20 words what would you say?
My latest book is White Heart of Justice, which is the third book in the Noon Onyx
series. The series and the book are best summed up by these sneak peek tweets:
Armageddon is over. The demons won. But it’s not as dark
as all that. Parts of it are romantic and sweet. @archer_jill #NOONONYXSERIES
“One out of every two hunters who follow the Old Trail
will not return.” @archer_jill #WHITEHEARTOFJUSTICE
Do you read all the reviews of your
book/books?
No. I think that would be impossible.
But I do scroll through Goodreads and Amazon from time to time to see what
readers are thinking. I’ve always said that writers have to have an odd
combination of arrogance and humility. You have to believe in yourself and your
work. Ideally, you should have a vision of what you want your work to be. And
allowing a single review to interfere with that wouldn’t be beneficial to
anyone.
On the other hand, I’m a commercial
writer. My job is to entertain, not educate. My books may provoke thought but
they aren’t meant as social commentary. So, yeah, I care about what my readers
think. Because I’m writing for them.
Would you ever ask a reviewer to change
their review if it was not all positive about your book/books?
Absolutely not. I don’t welcome negative
reviews, but I’ve received them. They’re a part of the business.
Every reader is entitled to his or her
own interpretation of an author’s work. Interpretations are subjective. They
can’t be right or wrong. Opinions, reviews, and reactions are based on an
individual’s experience and background. They are the final piece of the
publishing puzzle. I’m always fascinated by how many different reactions there
are to a single piece of work.
It’s worth noting, however, that reviews
written with a professional tone (whether positive or negative) have more
credibility.
How do you come up with characters names
and place names in your books?
The short answer is: EVERYWHERE. But
details can be fun so here’s the scoop on a few new characters/things from White Heart of Justice:
The Amanita: an old, powerful order
of Angels. Amanita is a genus containing some of the most poisonous mushrooms
in the world.
Adikia: the Patron Demon of Abuse,
Injustice, and Oppression. She oversees the demon prisoners at the New Babylon
Gaol. Adikia was the Goddess of Injustice in Greek mythology.
Gou Nan Jounen An (a.k.a. Rasha Pearl): one of the other Laurel Crown Racer’s targets. She’s a Hyrke
courtesan and spy. I based her on Mati Hari.
Have you ever based characters on people
you know or based events on things that have happened to you?
No character is based on anyone I know.
I used my experiences as a law student and adjunct professor as inspiration for
some of the scenes at St. Luck’s, the demon law school that Noon attends. And I
used my memories of
the Louisiana swamps, the Mississippi River, and neighborhoods like the Garden
District to build some of my settings.
Are there any hidden messages or morals
contained in your books?
The books aren’t preachy. For the most
part, they’re meant to be entertaining and fun. But I also hope some of the
scenes make people think twice about some things. I always post discussion
questions for each book, which include lots of meaty topics to discuss (femininity,
parental expectations, sacrifice, self-acceptance, morality versus legality).
They are incredibly spoilery though so be sure to read the books first! http://jillarcherauthor.wordpress.com/book-clubs/
Which format of book do you prefer:
ebook, hardback, or paperback?
I read them all. I have a Kindle and an
iPad. I buy books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and lots of independent
bookstores. I also use my local library.
I have a slight preference for paperback
because it’s easier for me to flip back and forth between different sections of
the book.
Is there a book you know you will never
read? Or one you tried to read but just couldn't finish?
I can’t say there’s a book I know I will
never, ever read. Hopefully, my life will be long and there will be many reasons
to read all sorts of books.
I’ve DNF’d tons of books. I just don’t
advertise which ones.
To me, not finishing a book just means
the story didn’t grab me as much as I would have liked. Life is busy. Books are
many. No reader should feel compelled to finish a book that doesn’t move them.
I also realize that my approach probably
means I’m missing out on some great fiction.
Do you think books transfer to movies
well?
I think whether or not a book transfers
well to film depends on three things: the screenwriter, the director, and the
actors who play the lead characters.
What do you think about book trailers?
Their popularity may have waned, but I
still think it’s a neat idea. I love the idea of combining storytelling
mediums. I’ve never done one, mostly because I don’t think the investment would
be worth it. But it’s something I’d consider for the future. The challenging
thing is that the ad for the story (the book trailer) is in one format (video)
while the story is in another (print or digital text).
Where can readers follow you?
Website/Blog: http://jillarcherauthor.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/archer_jill
Any other information you wish to
supply?
Discussion Questions: http://jillarcherauthor.wordpress.com/book-clubs/
Thank
you to Jeanz Book Read N Review for interviewing me! Best wishes and happy
reading, all!
You're Welcome Jill! I don't usually go for this type of book but the blurb & excerpt have me caprivated so it's another addition to my Want To Read List! thanks for dropping by. ~ Jeanz
***GIVEAWAY***
$50 Amazon eGift
Certificate (or bookseller of winner’s choice) (international)
5 copies of White Heart of Justice (or an earlier
book in the series, winner’s choice) (international so long as Book Depository
ships to your address)
Dark
Light of Day themed SWAG pack
(incudes signed copy of book and other awesome goodies) (US only)
(incudes signed copy of book and other awesome goodies) (US only)
DARK LIGHT OF DAY PRIZE PACK
Signed print copy of Dark Light of Day
Handmade bookmark with charm
Natural Face Paint Kit
Orange Silk Flower Hair Clip
Atomic Fireball Candies
Signed copy of galley pages of scene that inspired prize pack
Fiery Edge of Steel themed SWAG pack
(incudes signed copy of book and other awesome goodies) (US only)
FIERY EDGE OF STEEL PRIZE PACK
Signed print copy of Fiery Edge of Steel
Handmade bookmark with charm
“The Queen of Flowers” T-shirt Tank Top
Set of three Silver Glass Mercury Votive Holders
Petite Pear Candies
Signed copy of galley pages of scene that inspired prize pack
White Heart of Justice themed SWAG pack
(incudes signed copy of book and other awesome goodies) (US only)
WHITE HEART OF JUSTICE PRIZE PACK
Signed print copy of White Heart of Justice
Handmade bookmark with charm
White Crystal Headband
Vintage Star Pin
White Chocolate Meltaways
Signed copy of galley pages of scene that inspired prize pack
And now the Rafflecopter to enter for your chance
to win these fantastic prizes!
WOW there's some fantastic prizes up for grabs, I'd love to win any of these, how about you?
Great interview! I can't wait to read White Heart of Justice.
ReplyDeleteHi Jeanz--thanks for the great interview. I've heard from a number of people who don't typically read fantasy that tried the books and liked them. I think it's great when readers explore genres outside of their usual favorites.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kerry! Hope you enjoy!
I'll stop back in later today to check for any other comments or questions. In the meantime, have a great day, all!