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    Sunbolt
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    Sunbolt
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    Sunbolt
    Ebook184 pages3 hours

    Sunbolt

    By Intisar Khanani

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.

    When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIntisar Khanani
    Release dateMay 21, 2013
    ISBN9780985665821
    Author

    Intisar Khanani

    Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five. She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters.Until recently, Intisar wrote grants and developed projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy. Intisar's next two projects include a companion trilogy to Thorn, following the heroine introduced in her short story The Bone Knife, and a novella series set in a fiction world of eleven kingdoms all controlled by a corrupt Council of Mages. Thorn is her first novel.

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    Reviews for Sunbolt

    4.5/5

    63 ratings8 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Sunbolt is quite short for a novel - more of a novella length - but it's an excellent YA story about a young thief, Hitomi, who gets involved with the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the corrupt local government. Khanani manages to dodge most of the YA fantasy tropes that can bug me - Hitomi is a strong and capable heroine but she cares about others, isn't particularly bad-ass or broken by traumatic events in her past and there's no love triangle (or really much of a romance aspect at all). This is a complete story but the ending does leave the reader wanting to know more about Hitomi's past and what's going to happen to her next. A longer (more novel-length) sequel, Memories of Ash was released last year which I am very much looking forward to reading soon. I think there's at least one more book planned in this series after that.
    • 5/5
      I've been hearing good things about Intisar Khanani's writing and now, I can confirm that they're justified.

      I loved this book. It's a pure and timeless fantasy. It mixes classic tropes with fresh and original ideas seamlessly. I especially liked how the many supernatural elements are introduced without fanfare, as they're known and accepted parts of this world.

      The narrator, Hitomi, is a young woman, a foreigner on her own in a country that's recently been invaded. She's also a rather junior member of a resistance movement led by an intriguing young man called 'Ghost.'

      When an operation to rescue the intended targets of a political assassination goes bad, our heroine finds herself captured and in serious trouble. Suddenly, her priorities are forced to shift in the face of unexpected personal revelations and the realization that she's in far more danger than she knew...

      The plot is a YA theme: coming-of-age, with magic... However, this is well-enough done to attract readers of all ages. The setting is vivid; the characters appealing... and we end desperately wanting to know where Hitomi will go from here.

      And... that's my only complaint. This book is too short; I wanted to spend much longer with it! However, since a sequel is on the way, no points deducted for that.

      Until the sequel comes out, there's one more novel by Khanani, 'Thorn' - I'll be reading that one soon!

      Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book - as always, my opinions are solely my own.
    • 5/5
      (4.5 stars, rounded up)

      I picked up this book to read the night before I left on a big family trip, planning to read just the first chapter or two, but I couldn't go to sleep until I finished it. Others may complain that it's too short, but for me the length was just right. It's a fast-paced story with a strong leading character who also manages to have reasonable doubts about plenty of things.

      My one quibble with the story is that towards the end, the pace flagged a bit, but maybe that helped with the sense that, in the end, Hitomi will go on to have more and even better adventures.
    • 5/5
      I seem to have mislaid my heart. That's what you get for reading about magical thieves, blood drinkers and soul stealers.Sunbolt is engaging, well-written, gripping and as full of Promise as its heroine Hitomi. It does just enough world building to hang together and tantalise, focusing instead on showing the strength of character of its young protagonist. I loved The Bone Knife, and Sunbolt cements Intisar Khanani as an author whose work I won't hesitate to read and recommend. More flailing.
    • 4/5
      Sunbolt is the first in a planned series of novellas all following Hitomi, a street thief with untrained magic. The first installment was certainly part of a series – while the ending felt like a natural stopping point, the story has a whole had only just begun.In this case, the cover blurb gives a fairly accurate summation, so I’ll repost it here:“The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detain—and execute—a leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomi’s, and much worse fates than execution. When Hitomi finds herself captured along with her charges, it will take everything she can summon to escape with her life.”The above really only describes the first half of the book, which happens to be my favorite part. I found this section very original and interesting. I loved the setting of Karolene – there’s so many little details that add so well to the world building. Even though only a little is seen of Hitomi (this is a novella, after all) I highly enjoyed her as a protagonist and am excited to see where she’ll go next.The second half I didn’t enjoy so much, probably because it strongly reminded me of another book I’ve read, Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. Both stories have similar situations that play out in similar ways, but Sunbolt‘s version paled in comparison to Sunshine‘s. Do note that Sunshine is a long term favorite of mine, and that likely influenced my thoughts.I’d recommend this one to people who like the fantasy street-thief sort of hero. Beyond that, I’d want to wait and see where the sequels will go.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this one.
    • 4/5
      This a well done Juvenile Book - there are better out there, but this book hits all the right spots - plucky teenager alone in the world... a magic system that makes sense, a world that actually feels real, plus an interesting cast of characters. It isn't perfect, at times, the story was too easy - for example, the escape from the dungeon. I especially liked that there is consequences for Hitomi actions. This is a book I would have been obsessed with as a teenager, and while it is simply written, it is written with thought.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      A quick read exciting from beginning to end

      This book is so entertaining. It goes fast and exciting. Sometimes it feels a bit too fast but overall it's very good. The writing is filled with wonderful gems that just feel like you're rubbing against exquisite velvet (though sometimes it feels a bit awkward as well).

      Hitomi is a very likable and cool character as are those she meets. Even the evil characters are fascinating in a way.
      .
      I really suggest picking up this book because it is one of the best indie books that I have come across.