The Summer Goddess

Asta is a strong warrior and leader whose family and tribe is ripped apart when slavers make a bloody descent on their coastal settlement. Despite a public vow to recover the missing, she is soon betrayed and set on her mission in a way very different from her expectations. The book follows her as she struggles to find her nephew, accompanied by the echo of her murdered brother in her mind. The voyage takes her to many different places and she falls in with various characters for a few chapters at a time along the way. I wouldn't have minded spending more time with some of these people and places, but Asta isn't one to hang about. Her need to complete her task is the engine that drives the book, and Asta is relentless in her desire to accomplish it. This is a fast moving, incident packed novel, with a convincing picture of a preindustrial world scarred by slavery. Joanne Hall's previous novel made it onto the Gemmell Award longlist earlier this year, and David Gemmell's brand of story driven secondary world fantasy with the grit left in isn't a bad reference point for this at all. Here's to the shortlist next year!