Title: AN EMBER IN THE ASHES
Author:
Sabaa Tahir
Pub. Date:
April 28, 2015
Publisher:
Razorbill
Pages: 464
Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.
When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.
Check out the book trailer!
Now on to the post!
I’ve
loved maps since I was a kid. Probably because, growing up in the Mojave desert,
I sometimes felt like there was nothing beyond the sand and mountains that
surrounded me. Looking at maps reminded me that there was, in fact, a whole
world out there. To this day, my most prized non-fiction tome is the National
Geographic Atlas in my study.
Fantasy
maps are my favorite kind of map. A good fantasy map helps the reader orient herself
in whatever new world she is experiencing. It contains all the relevant locations—cities,
villages, borders, islands, ports. The best maps even offer tantalizing hints
about where the author might take you in future books.
One
of the first things I did when I began writing EMBER in 2007 was draw a couple
of (hideous) maps. One was of the Empire and another was of Blackcliff, the
military school where EMBER’s action takes place.
These
maps sufficed until 2012, when, between EMBER drafts, I decided I needed maps
that I wouldn’t be humiliated to show to beta readers. With the help of a web
site called the Cartographer’s Guild, I created a couple of maps with
Photoshop. They are basically the mapmaker’s equivalent of stick figures—but
better than what I had before.
Fast
forward to the summer of 2014: My editor informed me that not only would EMBER
be getting maps of Blackcliff and the Empire, but that those maps would be
created by Jonathan Roberts, who created the maps for Game of Thrones’ The Land of Ice and Fire.
Jon
began by creating rough sketches based off of my maps, fixing some embarrassing
geographic errors I’d made. Rivers that should have split when running into the
sea were shifted. A conifer forest was transformed into a more geographically
appropriate deciduous forest. I gave Jon details about the type of desert I
intended for both the Great Wastes and the Tribal Desert, as well as the size
and architectural style of each of the cities in the world of Ember. I sent a
few images to him, both of Serra and of Raider’s Roost, which is based on a
similar rock formation near my hometown.
At
the same time, Jon took my, er, minimalist
Blackcliff map and created something beautiful: the black slash that
represented Blackcliff’s front gate became an imposing entry gate and courtyard;
the simple lines that marked watchtowers became fortified, Romanesque towers. Jon
also added outbuildings within the school and extensive neighborhood structures
for the area beyond Blackcliff’s walls.
Over
the course of a few weeks, EMBER’s maps went from my cave-man-esque design, to spare
and beautiful sketches, to detailed line art, to the colored and shaded
magnificence that you can see on EMBER’s web site or, as
the black and white endpapers in Ember’s hardcover edition.
Watching
the evolution of the maps was one of the most fascinating and fun parts of
working on EMBER. Jon’s detailed, gorgeous maps somehow managed to capture what
I saw in my head with far more clarity than anything I’d have ever come up
with.
If
you’d like to learn more about Jon—please check out his web site, which is
packed full of excellent tutorials: http://www.fantasticmaps.com/
If
you’d like some step-by-step instructions on how to create your own fantasy map
on photoshop, try the Cartographers Guild at www.cartographersguild.com.
About Sabaa:
Sabaa Tahir grew up in California’s Mojave Desert at her family’s 18-room
motel. There, she spent her time devouring fantasy novels, raiding her
brother’s comic book stash and playing guitar badly. She began writing An Ember
in the Ashes while working nights as a newspaper editor. She likes thunderous
indie rock, garish socks and all things nerd. Sabaa currently lives in the San
Francisco Bay Area with her family.
Check out the This Week's Schedule!
5/11 - Read.Breathe.Relax. – interview
5/12 - Mundie Moms – guest post
5/13 – Two Chicks on Books – guest post (HERE)
5/14 - The Children's Book Review – interview
5/15 – Bookhounds - Top 5: Things I HAVE to Do Before I Die
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