It’s been a while, so decided to dust off the map-making muscles with a (relatively) quick map of one of the most underrated epic fantasy series, Kate Elliott’s Crown of Stars series.
Published in seven volumes between 1997 and 2005, Crown of Stars is the story of a great threat which falls upon the Europe-like continent of Novaria. However, the peoples of Novaria are engaged in their own internal feuds and concerns which blind them to the growing threat. In particular, the unified realms of Wendar and Varre are facing the prospect of civil war and invasion across the sea from the hostile Eika.
The fate of Novaria comes to rest on the shoulders of four individuals: Liath, a young woman who joins the elite messenger service known as the King’s Eagles, but faces the unwelcome pursuit of the vile Hugh, who believes she has abilities beyond those of ordinary humans; Alain, a young man who discovers he is the heir to a remote barony, upon which the fate of the unified kingdoms may hinge; Rosvita, a churchwoman writing a history of the realm from her vantage point in the King’s Court; and Sanglant, bastard child of King Henry, who commands the defence of the city of Gent against the Eika invaders.
The series is noteworthy for both its length (seven chunky volumes) and its status as a completed saga, as well as how it handles themes such as religion (the world is dominated by a matriarchal form of Christianity), cultural and ethnic differences. It is also consciously set at the beginning of the medieval period rather than the end, resulting in far smaller armies than is the norm in epic fantasy (a thousand troops is a fairly substantial force) and ideas like some nations not having capital cities, with the king instead on a permanent progress or circuit between the noble holdings.
Elliott has gone on to write additional series include the Crossroads and Spiritwalker trilogies. She is currently writing the space opera Sun Chronicles series, with its second volume, Furious Heaven, due in August 2022.
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