“I have to get on,” Bryte said breathlessly. “I don’t have a ticket, but I have the money for one. Please, let me board.”
“It’s irregular, miss. Don’t know as I can do that.”
“Of course you can,” Lina said, rising to greet Bryte. “This is my cousin. I have her ticket here.” She held out the strip of stiff blue paper.
To Bryte she said, “I brought your things. They’re packed in my trunk. What took you so long?”
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Bryte’s Ascent was originally written to please my Tor editor, who complained because the previous books of mine he had edited had protagonists on the verge of adulthood. These were A Perilous Power, A School for Sorcery, and When the Beast Ravens (the title of which I’ve changed in the reissue to When the Beast Hungers). I had not set out to write any of those for teens, although they were suitable for teens and Tor published them as YA (Young Adult) books; i.e., books for young people age 10 up. I never felt that the books were for children as young as ten, but as a middle school teacher, I was well aware that they could be enjoyed by middle and high school students. It was always my hope that adults would also enjoy them; and indeed that has been the case.
Because my editor wanted me to write books with a younger protagonist, I introduced Bryte, an almost-13-year-old. My editor approved thoroughly and loved the book, but nevertheless, the book was rejected for publication. The sales department vetoed the purchase of my book because the previous book had not done well. My editor had warned me against using the word “ravens” in the title on the grounds that people would not understand that meaning and would find the title confusing. He was right, and I wish I had listened. Because most people know “ravens” only as refering to large black birds in the corvid family, they could make no sense of the title. The word is also a verb meaning “hungers” and is related to the adjective “ravenous.” I insisted on using it because it seemed to me that it was a stronger word than “hungers.” Maybe it is, but its use was still a mistake.
Unfortunately, my agent could not find another publisher for Bryte’s Ascent, because of its being at that time the 4th book in a series. (I wrote the books that are now Books 1-4 of the Arucadi series after the books that are now 5-7.) As a result, Bryte’s Ascent became my first self-published book—the one I learned on. I made mistakes, understandably, as I taught myself the techniques of self-publishing. That will explain why I have now redone the book and am fitting it into its proper place as Book 8 in the Arucadi Series.
Is it the YA novel my editor wanted? It can certainly be read by teens. But it is also a book that follows the characters from Books 6 and 7, and will, I hope, appeal to adults as well.
Like the preceding books, Bryte’s Ascent deals with a serious theme, in this case, that of prejudice against a minority. The minority here is those who are magically gifted. They are persecuted, imprisoned, and killed for no reason other than that they have talents the general population does not have. People tend to fear what they don’t understand. Rather than being a danger, the magically gifted have talents which can benefit the general population, but they have to keep those talents hidden to avoid persecution and punishment.
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, here in America we live in a society that has long condoned racism and suppressed minority rights. In doing so, we have lost out on who knows how many and what sorts of positive contributions these people would have brought to advance the well-being of our society, and in fact, how many contributions in every field—science, medicine, architecture, sociology, the arts, and more—they have made, the knowledge of which has been suppressed and omitted from our histories.
I hope that things are changing, that people are becoming more aware of the injustice and inequality that have pervaded our nation from its founding. That we will cease terrorizing and keeping in darkness the people with whom we can build a better, stronger, more peaceful nation.
You can of course read Bryte’s Ascent as just a fantasy novel and adventure thriller. It is that, but I hope that my readers will draw from it a deeper lesson of how understanding and acceptance can remedy fear and hate.
Learn more about the Arucadi books and other novels by visiting my web site, http://www.erosesabin.com/, where you can also sign up to receive my newsletter.
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BOOKS BY E. ROSE SABIN
THE ARUCADI SERIES:
Mistress of the Wind
Bringers of Magic
A Mix of Magics
Deniably Dead
A Perilous Power
A School for Sorcery
When the Beast Hungers
Bryte’s Ascent
Mother Lode (2021)
[Cat and Cobra is also an Arucadi novel, but is not numbered because it is not part of the series story arc. Chronologically, though, it fits between Deniably Dead and A Perilous Power.]
OTHER NOVELS
FOR ADULTS:
DEATHRIGHT
HOUSE OF DREAMS
THE TWISTED TOWERS
WERE HOUSE
FOR YOUNGER TEENS:
TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE FOREST
FOR CHILDREN, GRADES 2-4:
GRANDY’S GRAND INVENTIONS
BRYTE'S ASCENT (Arucadi Series Book 8) Page 27