Synopses & Reviews
Xhea has no magic. Born without the renai that everyone else is born with naturally, Xhea lives in a world of black and white, working menial jobs to earn renai and turn her world to color. However, Xhea has a power that no one else doesthe ability to see ghosts. She morphs this ability into a job, helping others rid themselves of their ghosts in order to get paid in renai, the form of magic she lacks, turning her black-, white-, and gray-shaded world to color.
When a City man rich with renai comes to her trailing a young ghost girl tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. She learns that this ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare human born with so much power that their Towers use it to fuel their magic. Without a Radiant, Towers cannot retain their statuses in the sky and are hostilely taken over by surrounding Towers. While Shais Tower, Allenai, does everything in its power to find Shai and return her to a bodyany bodyso that it can retain its position, Xhea must help save Shai from this fate of never-ending pain and torture, fighting not only Allenai but other Towers as well who want to steal Shais ghost for themselves. While she battles a multitude of enemies, she discovers that she is not powerless after all but instead holds a different kind of power, a dark magic that can undo the spells cast by renai-holders.
With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.
Synopsis
Xhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcastno way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the Citys floating Towers.
When a rich City man comes to her with a young womans ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shais home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a bodyany bodyso that it can regain its position, while the Towers rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerlessuntil a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.
With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.
About the Author
Karina Sumner-Smith is a Canadian author of fantasy, science fiction, and young adult. Her short fiction has appeared in
The Living Dead 2,
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Three, and
Children of Magic, among others. Among being reprinted in a number of anthologies, her short stories have also been nominated for the Nebula Award and have been translated into Czech and Spanish. She lives in Ontario.