Saga of the Jewels

Faenon
Saga of the Jewels

A fantasy audio serial. Can Ryn and his companions find the twelve elemental Jewels in time to stop the Emperor from conquering the world? Avatar: The Last Airbender meets The Chronicles of Prydain meets DnD meets the Final Fantasy games. Has an ensemble cast, an elemental magic system, steampunk airships, chocobos, dungeons, and a Cid, among many other things. Updates on or near the 1st of each month. Also has a 'Previously on...' section at the start of each episode so you can jump on anywhere. Subscribe at sagaofthejewels.substack.com to get a free sample short story as an ebook and mp3. sagaofthejewels.substack.com

  1. NOV 1

    We Shall Have A Tournament

    Previously on Saga of the Jewels… The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. He discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. Ryn sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted bounty hunter. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where with the help of the Farrian fighting monk HULD they have retrived the EARTH EMERALD, but Huld and the GOVERNOR of Farr might have other plans for it… EPISODE TWENTY-NINE: WE SHALL HAVE A TOURNAMENT “Well I must say I did not entirely expect you to return successfully,” said the Governor of Farr. They were back in his audience chamber on the summit of Shun-Pei, standing side-by-side a few paces away from his wide wooden desk. This time, Ryn noticed, two guards with shaven heads in green robes stood flanking each side of the desk, and there were two more behind them on the door as well. “It was rather difficult,” said Nuthea. “We had to fight golems, navigate a darkened labyrinth, herd some glow-worms, bypass a series of traps, and defeat an enormous plant monster... But we managed it in the end. Not least because of the help of your soldier Huld here.” Ryn sighed quietly. It had been a ‘rather difficult’ experience. They had all been very glad of a good meal and a rest on Wanderlust on their way back here. What am I doing on this crazy adventure, again? Oh, that’s right, I have nothing better to do, and everyone I knew from my life before is dead. Plus we’re saving the world. I suppose that’s quite important. Also, I get to stay around Nuthea. “I am sure it was very eventful for you,” said the Governor, scowling at them from underneath his large hat and behind the polished oak surface that separated him from them. “Show me then, Huld. I assume you have it?” “Yes Lord Governor,” said Huld. The hulking monk stepped forward, drawing something out from the folds of his brilliant green robes, and made to hand it to the Governor. “Don’t give it to me, you fool!” the Governor snapped, his jowls wobbling. “Put it down on the desk! I’m not getting mixed up in any of this magic business, if indeed it is magic…” Huld bowed his head. “Yes Lord Governor. I’m sorry Lord Governor.” He placed the object on the desk and took a step back to return to his place in the line. Only, he didn’t quite step back all the way—he stayed slightly further forward than the party. On the desk in front of him shone a small, brilliant leaf-green, oval emerald. “So,” said the Governor, “does it work?!” Not even a ‘well done’, Ryn thought. “Does it bestow earth-manipulation?” “Yes, Lord Governor.” “Show me.” Huld hesitated a moment, then raised a hand, palm up, as if he was a schoolmaster gesturing for the Governor to stand up out of his chair. Instead of that happening, with a small rumble some of the mountain-earth in front of the desk of which the floor was composed rose up to form a pointed cone, much like a miniature version of the towers which made up Shun-Pei, before falling back to flatness when Huld lowered his hand again. He already seemed to be getting more proficient at earth-manipulation in the short time since he had touched the emerald. Ryn noticed the eyebrow of one of the guards stood by the desk ris

    25 min
  2. Earth Elemental

    OCT 1

    Earth Elemental

    Previously on Saga of the Jewels… The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. Ryn sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted assassin. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where, guided by the Farrian monk HULD, they have entered the ancient abandoned Earth Temple in order to attempt to retrieve the EARTH EMERALD… EPISODE TWENTY-EIGHT: EARTH ELEMENTAL “I guess we needed that boulder after all,” the purple-haired engineer-girl was saying. “It pressed down the switch at the bottom of the pit, which opened those doors.” “Hmph,” spoke the ponytailed skypirate. “I could have done that. I would have found it eventually.” The engineer girl rolled her eyes at him. Huld was just grateful that they seemed to have made it through the trap-gauntlet, for now at least. He was astonished at the variety and ingenuity of the traps and designs that had been built into this shrine to Eto. Had they been part of the original architect’s intention, he wondered, or had the ‘Earth Emerald’ formed those, too, around itself, as the old man had talked about? “Come on everyone,” said the fireboy, who seemed to be the leader of the group when it wasn’t goldengirl or ponytail. “Let’s see what’s through these doors.” Huld walked forwards with the others through the steel doors. Now the pool of moving light from the collection of glow-worms in the floor, which they had been chasing for so long, moved with them, staying under their feet and following them through the doors. Beyond the doors it lit up another large, high-ceilinged chamber much like the one they had been in two floors ago. Only this chamber was somewhat smaller, in terms of its length and width, if not its height. And while it had the same brown-coloured earthen floor as the rest of the Shrine, this chamber’s walls and ceiling were made of stone, grey in the light from the worm-pool. There was no exit off of it that Huld could see. “I think we’ve reached the top level of the Temple that we saw outside!” said goldengirl. “About time, too,” said ponytail. “But what do we do now we’re here?” said fireboy. “Shouldn’t the Emerald be in this room somewhere?” “Hopefully…” said the old man. “But there might be one final puzzle, one last challenge…” “Well that’s just great…” grumbled ponytail. “Hey, what’s that over there?” said goldengirl. She was pointing at a small object on the floor in the centre of the room. Huld walked over to it with the others in the light from the glow-worms and inspected it. Growing right in the centre of the chamber was what to all appearances seemed to be a tiny plant. The plant jutted a few inches out of the earthen floor, its stalk and presumably roots extending down into it, green in the glow-worm light. It had a few little leaves which grew off the main stalk. It was more of a shoot than a plant, really. The whole thing did not look bigger than Huld’s hand. As they got closer to it, the edge of the light-pool touched the plant, and its leaves twitched. “Did you see that?!” said engineer-girl. All of a sudden the pool of light dissolved as the glow-worms all shot apart in different direct

    38 min
  3. These Doors Are Made Of Stone

    JUL 31

    These Doors Are Made Of Stone

    Previously on Saga of the Jewels… The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, VISH the poppy-seed-addicted bounty hunter, and HULD the fighting monk. Together the companions decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the evil EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succeeded in retrieving the Fire Ruby, borne by Ryn, and the Lightning Crystal, borne by Nuthea. They have now come to the land of FARR where under the guidance of the Farrian fighting monk HULD they have entered the Earth Temple in order to attempt to find the EARTH EMERALD… EPISODE TWENTY-SEVEN: THESE DOORS ARE MADE OF STONE “At least no more of those golem things appeared when you pushed the doors like last time,” Ryn called up to Sagar where the skypirate stood at the top of the flight of earthen stairs. “Yeah, that’s something…” said Elrann nearby. “Sure,” Sagar called down, “but how are we going to get through these doors? They’re shut fast, I tell you!” “Maybe Huld can try them?” Ryn suggested. “Rrrr,” came Sagar’s growl of irritation from above, echoing through the large hall. Despite himself, the side of Ryn’s mouth twitched up into a half-grin. “Fine! I wouldn’t say he’s much stronger than me, though!” Ryn turned to the monk, who wore his usual blank smile. “Do you mind having a go, Huld?” “I will try.” The monk plodded up on the steps and stood next to Sagar. He put his hands on the doors and pushed. “No,” he confirmed, “I am not strong enough to move these either.” “See?” said Sagar, holding out his hands sanctimoniously. “Why don’t you try your special technique thingy?” yelled up Elrann. “You mean The Strike That Moves Mountains?” Huld said. “Yeah! That one.” “Hang on,” Sagar called down, “the last time he did that, those golem things appeared and attacked us! We don’t want that to happen again!” “I’m ready with my fire,” Ryn said. “Yes,” said Nuthea, “but you are meant to be conserving your mana.” She shook her head at him like he was a naughty child. Annoyance tightened Ryn’s mouth, but it quickly turned to a suppressed laugh. Nuthea could be so bossy sometimes he just had to laugh at her. “Right,” said Elrann, “that could happen, but this is the best bet we’ve got at the moment.” “So would you like me to try?” said Huld deferentially from the top of the steps. He was the picture of politeness, but Ryn wondered if underneath that gentle giant exterior the monk was experiencing any irritation with them. “Yeah,” said Elrann. “Go for it!” “Rrrr,” growled Sagar. Huld set his feet, pulled back his hands behind his body and breathed in loudly, sucking in the stale air. Ryn braced himself. His fingers tingled, ready to summon flame if need be. Huld drove his open palms into the stone doors.  An almighty boom resounded throughout the chamber, followed by... …cavernous silence.  “Well that’s done absolutely nothing,” observed Sagar. “Again.”  The skypirate marched back down the stairs. Huld followed. “Anyone else got any smart ideas to try?” Sagar said in exasperation as the two of them re-joined the circle of the group in the faint glow-worm light. “It’s another puzzle…” said Cid, stroking his beard. “Like the last floor. Although it seems we may not be able to solve this one just by blasting through it, since

    26 min
  4. JUN 1

    Huld, The Monk

    Fantasy book news: -The Locus Award shortlist is out. The fantasies are: * To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, Moniquill Blackgoose (Del Rey) * The Keeper’s Six, Kate Elliott (Tordotcom) * Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett (Del Rey; Orbit UK) * Dead Country, Max Gladstone (Tordotcom) * The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK) * Paladin’s Faith, T. Kingfisher (Argyll) * He Who Drowned the World, Shelley Parker-Chan (Tor; Mantle) * My Brother’s Keeper, Tim Powers (Baen; Ad Astra) * City of Last Chances, Adrian Tchaikovsky (Ad Astra) * Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom) The YA fantasies are: * The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, Garth Nix (Tegen; Gollancz) * Divine Rivals, Rebecca Ross (Wednesday; Magpie UK) * The Siren, the Song, and the Spy, Maggie Tokuda-Hall (Candlewick) -The Bookseller has announced the winners of the 2024 British Book Awards, also known as The Nibbies. Here once again we see the trending dominance of Romantasy and in particular Rebecca Yarros. The fantasies that came up were: * Iron Flame, Rebecca Yarros (Piaktus) * Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (Piatkus) [winner in Page Turner category] * Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury Children’s) [winner in Children’s fiction category] * Powerless, Lauren Roberts (Simon & Schusters Children’s) * Skandar and the Phantom Rider, A.F. Steadman (Simon & Schusters Children’s) For the complete list of winners, see the official website. -Not strictly book news, but you’ve probably heard that they’re making a new Lord of the Rings film about Gollum. I’m not very hopeful after the messes that were the Hobbit films. On the other hand Andy Serkis is a genius. We’ll see… Your free and discounted fantasy ebook and audiobook sales for this month: And a little Romantasy one I snuck in to see if any Romantasy readers are interested in jumping on to the story of Ryn and Nuthea… \/ \/ \/ What I’ve been reading: I like to read something similar in form to whatever I’m working on, and I started out this month editing and submitting some short stories so I thought I would read some too. One of the stories I had was comedy-fantasy (see below), so I decided to read Terry Pratchett’s short stories. I’ve not read any Pratchett for a while, but I spent most of my teens working through the Discworld novels. I realise now just how much Pratchett affected my writing style—which I think is good and bad! Lots of these were not that memorable. On the other hand, one or two were absolute gems, but they did depend somewhat on prior knowledge of Discworld characters. Pratchett was the king of comedy-fantasy, but seemed (by his own admission) to do best with novels… What I’ve been listening to: To be honest I’m still listening my way through THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA since it’s so massive, however in the meantime here’s a hot audio tip: If you haven’t discovered the free fantasy short stories podcast PODCASTLE yet (from genre stories podcast group ESCAPE POD), you should check it out! In particular I recommend their full-cast recording of IN THE STACKS, a hilarious short story about some students returning a book to a vast magical library, also written by Scott Lynch. What Jo’s been reading: What I’ve been working on: I edited and submitted three fantasy short stories to different venues this month for something different before editing SAGA OF THE JEWELS VOL. 1 in response to the professional editorial feedback I paid for. I’ve got one request for a full story from a partial sub so far, so that’s something! I’ve only aimed relatively low because it’s been a while since I sold any short stories, but we’ll see if anything comes of them. Then I got to editing something I wrote at Christmas—a short story about a teacher in a magic school, rather than a student, for once. I’d already written a second follow-up scene, and I had a few more ideas, so I just kept going—and now I have 16,000 words of

    34 min
  5. APR 1

    Call for a narrator

    Dear reader, I’ve decided to switch this newsletter to being all about Romantasy and change its name to ‘Romanon’s Romantasy Ruse-letter’. Happy April Fool’s. Also, Happy Easter Monday (a rare lunar-related coincidence). Last weekend the Western Church celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the greatest fantasy story ever told, so great that it might actually be true fantasy, as Tolkien might have said. FANTASY BOOK NEWS (not April Fool’s): More awards news from the last month… First, the SFWA’s annual Nebula awards finalist list has been posted. Some really cool stuff in there, including lots of fantasy and awards for game writing. Of the nominations for best novel, here are the fantasies: * The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom) * The Water Outlaws, S.L. Huang (Tordotcom; Solaris UK) ←looks especially cool * Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon, Wole Talabi (DAW, Gollancz) * Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom) Second, a new set of librarian-run book awards called the ‘Libbys’ has debuted, and it has a fantasy category (and a romantasy category, naturally!). Here were the fantasy finalists for this year (links are to ‘libby’ pages, because Libbys): Libby Award Finalists for Best Fantasy: A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon 🎧Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 🎧Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo 🎧To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose 🎧Witch King by Martha Wells 🎧 How many have you read? I’ve read…none. But two are on my huge TBR list! Maybe three, now! YOUR FREE INDIE FANTASY EBOOKS FOR THIS MONTH*: *Note: I’m aware that a couple of newsletters ago these banner links didn’t work because I’d just moved this newsletter over from Mailchimp. Sorry about that. They all work now. Please tap/click away! MY WRITING NEWS In terms of my own writing news, my YA superhero novel WEAKLING won a thing! More precisely, it got a ‘top 10 finalist honourable mention’ in the ‘BooksShelf Awards’: I have no memory of submitting WEAKLING to this contest. It does not fill me with confidence that these people cannot spell the word ‘bookshelf’ and that their website looks horrendously amateurish, however…it’s something! Assuming the judges actually read it, WEAKLING beat a bunch of other books to a top 10 spot! Every little bit of encouragement counts for something… Also, I’m spending the last of the money I earned for writing CLARENT SAGA: CHRONICLES on getting a professional edit for SAGA OF THE JEWELS VOL. 1 and commissioning a new, professional cover for its free taster short story PRELUDE: THE FINAL BATTLE. One of the advantages of being indie is that you can choose your own cover artists. The draft sketch for the cover from my artist at miblart came back, and I love it! See below. WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Last month I finished SWORDS IN THE MIST (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser 3, continuing my late sword-and-sorcery education), carried on with a bit more of and gave up on SUFFICIENTLY ADAVANCED MAGIC (perhaps more on that in a future newsletter) and most recently I’ve been reading PALADIN’S GRACE by T. Kingfisher. This is a beautifully written quirky contemporary fantasy (er, and maybe actually a romantasy too…) that deals with themes of faith and duty, and so far it’s excellent. WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO: Now this is a very, very guilty pleasure and a deep cut. Did you ever play Warhammer/Games Workshop as a kid? You may or may not remember that in a previous newsletter I mentioned reading TROLLSLAYER by William King, first in the massive GOTREK AND FELIX series which is set in the old Warhammer World. I recently read the second book SKAVENSLAYER as well, and enjoyed it so much I just wanted to keep going… I read that the audiobooks are excellent, so I picked up the audiobook of DAEMONSLAYER and, well, they are! Jonathan Keeble gets the narration just right, employing fantastic character accents with exactly

    1 min
  6. MAR 1

    The Crossroads of the East

    Dear reader, The big fantasy book news from the last month all has to do with the annual Hugo Awards. Last year they happened in China, but some emails were recently leaked showing that the nominations were influenced by consideration of the ideology of the host nation. Controversial! News to me also is that ‘romantasy’ (romance combined with fantasy) is now being discussed as a genre in its own right. Your romantasy exemplar authors would be Sarah J. Mass and Rebecca Yarros. SAGA OF THE JEWELS does have some (albeit very slow-burn) elements of romance in it, so I am wondering if I can cheekily piggyback on this label myself… What I’ve been reading One of the books I’ve read since my last newsletter is COLD IRON, the first fantasy by historical novelist Miles (Christian) Cameron. It was fun, with fantastic worldbuilding, if a bit ‘male’ and thinly sketched, for me. My slightly longer review here. What Jo’s been reading Some of the books that Jo’s read since I last wrote are the rest of the ensemble-cast multi-POV steampunk noblebright KETTY JAY series by Chris Wooding. She had already read RETRIBUTION FALLS and THE BLACK LUNHG CAPTAIN and she went and finished THE IRON JACKAL and THE ACE OF SKULLS. I have read these too and agree with her that they are absolutely awesome: fun, full of heart, meticulously clever plotting, vibrant three-dimensional characters, humour, emotion, and a hopeful core. This newsletter sometimes becomes the Chris Wooding Appreciation Society newsletter, but I’m ok with that… Recommended! In other news… Jo had her first book traditionally published! And by Bloomsbury, no less! This is her Cambridge (UK) Theology PhD thesis, now published as a hardback and an ebook. She wrote it while simultaneously training to be and then working as an Anglican vicar (that’s ‘cleric’ for you fantasy fans) and putting up with an unstable husband, and in the course of writing it had two bouts of hyperemesis gravidarum and gave birth to two children! She then passed her viva voce exam for it with no corrections! If you don’t know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a 20th-century German theologian who was imprisoned and executed by the Nazis for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. ‘Polyphony’ is a musical term to do with multiple mutually complementary melodies in a piece of music and a ‘pneumatology’ is a conceptual system for talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person in God, in Christianity. If that doesn’t convince you to buy this book (or at least ask your local academic institution to buy it), then nothing will I don’t know what will! An absolute steal currently on sale for £76.50 in hardback or £61.50 for the ebook! That’s all for this month, though as ever do check out the indie fantasy book sale of the month and this month’s SAGA OF THE JEWELS episode below or on the podcast. TTFN, Faenon / Luke Your indie fantasy FREE ARC book promotion for this month: Click here or the picture below \/ Now, on with the Saga… Need to catch up? The WHOLE of Book One (Episodes 1 to 21) is available bundled together as a FREE AUDIOBOOK here. Previously on Saga of the Jewels… The life of seventeen-year-old RYN, bookish son of a wealthy landowner, changes forever when his hometown is destroyed by the EMPIRE and everyone he has ever known is killed. Ryn discovers that the Empire are seeking TWELVE PRIMEVAL JEWELS which grant the power to manipulate different elements, and that his father had been hiding the FIRE RUBY. He sets out to take revenge on the Imperial General who killed his family and retrieve the Fire Ruby, and along the way meets NUTHEA the lightning-slinging princess, SAGAR the swaggering skypirate, ELRANN the tomboy engineer, CID the wizened old healer, and VISH the poppy-seed-addicted bounty hunter. Together the adventurers decide to find all of the Jewels in order to stop the EMPEROR from finding them first and taking over the world. They have thus far succe

    33 min

About

A fantasy audio serial. Can Ryn and his companions find the twelve elemental Jewels in time to stop the Emperor from conquering the world? Avatar: The Last Airbender meets The Chronicles of Prydain meets DnD meets the Final Fantasy games. Has an ensemble cast, an elemental magic system, steampunk airships, chocobos, dungeons, and a Cid, among many other things. Updates on or near the 1st of each month. Also has a 'Previously on...' section at the start of each episode so you can jump on anywhere. Subscribe at sagaofthejewels.substack.com to get a free sample short story as an ebook and mp3. sagaofthejewels.substack.com

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