HOPE AND RED

In a feuding empire, across harrowing seas, twin tragedies have left two young children orphaned. In the Southern Isles, a haunted, nameless girl saw her parents torn apart by biomancers, ruthlessly cruel lackeys of the emperor bent on human submission to their torturous experiments, mutating their subjects into grotesque hybrids at the emperor’s whim. In the dire straits of New Laven, Rixidenteron (later dubbed “Red”), a young artistic prodigy with the trademark red eyes of a coral addict’s son, is abandoned after watching his parents succumb to the grief of his mother’s addiction and incurable illness.

Both flee to the seas to escape these horrors – the young girl, dubbed “Bleak Hope” after her ruined home, is rescued and subsequently sent to a secluded monastery of the Vinchen Order, where she is trained in secret by the enlightened master she serves. Red is press-ganged into service on a pirate ship headed for the Southern Isles, but is able to escape after a mutiny by a fellow inmate, thus beginning his life of notoriety.

Nine years later, these precociously talented children have become forces to be reckoned with. Hope is a gifted warrior, so skilled that word of her being trained in secret has spread throughout the monastery and she has no choice but to flee or be killed. She escapes, ultimately to New Laven by ship, an ancient sword her only possession. This blade will prove instrumental to her warrior’s destiny—though with a challenging proviso given the horrors she endured: she must use it for the sake of peace, not vengeance.

Meanwhile Red, having embarked on a less illustrious though no less arduous journey, has been biding his time as New Laven's resident master of mischief and mayhem. His and Hope’s paths cross when she is unwittingly pitted against Deadface Drem—the most fearsome gang leader in New Laven, who seeks to consolidate the slums and reign supreme, with help from the manipulative biomancers.

Red’s intimate knowledge of the streets and the inner workings of slums pairs well with Hope’s unparalleled skill with a sword, though her single-minded dedication to principle and honor tends to clash with his wiliness. Soon, their lives appear irrevocably intertwined as they set off a plot to not only free the slums from Drem’s stronghold, but to ultimately take down the biomancers, and by extension, the emperor who orders their experiments. Divided loyalties, greater callings, and unforeseen destinies seek to interrupt Hope and Red’s plots, and throw them into a much bigger ring than they could have ever imagined.

HOPE & RED is a fantasy that hits every mark – with its blisteringly-paced action, moments of quiet emotion, a hint of romance, and a breathless cliffhanger that will leave any reader ravenous for the next book.

Jon Skovron is the author of four Young Adult novels, most recently MAN MADE BOY, and the forthcoming sequel, BROKEN WONDROUS WORLD (both from Viking/Penguin)