#the chronicles of nerezia

[transbookoftheday]

Awakenings by Claudie Arseneault

Innkeep, hunter, blacksmith, nurse—Horace has apprenticed for every clan in the domed city of Trenaze, and they've all rejected em. Too hare-brained. Too talkative. Too slow. Ever the optimist, e has joined Trenaze's guards to be mentored. Horace has high hopes to earn eir place during eir trial at the Great Market. That is, until the glowing shards haunting the world break through the city's protective dome, fused together in a single, monstrous amalgam of Fragments.

Armed with a sword, a shield, and far too little training, Horace doubts eir ability to defend the market-goers. But eir last stand is interrupted by a mysterious elven figure who can dissipate the Fragments with a single, strange sentence: your story is my story.

From the moment it is uttered, Horace knows the sentences holds true for em, too—and when the elf collapses in the middle of the market, e carries them to safety, to recover away from the panicked crowd and inevitable questions from eir fellow guards. It could cost em eir apprenticeship—eir last chance to find eir place in eir home city—but Horace cannot resist the pull of this mystery elf and the call of a new friend.

Aliyah has but one desire: to leave Trenaze's safe boundaries and find the forest that haunts their dreams. After an afternoon of board games in their quiet, sharp-witted company, Horace is ready to follow, confronting Fragments and other dangers of the road to understand what happened that day, hear Aliyah's laugh again and finally feel like e belongs.

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Awakenings is the first of a series of nine fantasy novellas with a platonic found family at its heart. It marries the quiet moments of cozy fantasy and the fun adventures of D&D-style sidequesting.

#awakenings #the chronicles of nerezia #claudie arseneault #nonbinary #trans book of the day #trans books #queer books #bookblr #booklr

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Awakenings

Start of a fantasy adventure novella series

a nonbinary jack-of-all-trades who keeps failing apprenticeships is guarding the dome of the town e’s in when it’s attacked by the magical metal fragments that roam the land, but a magical stranger with amnesia who turns into an eldritch tree creature saves the day

the two of them and a lizard artificer, start traveling together in a magic wagon and become friends as the start to travel from town to town

Board games, friendship, nonbinary & aroace MCs

#Awakenings #the chronicles of nerezia #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #aroace books #this is good and fun I enjoyed it! #intriguing world and characters I can't wait to find out more about them #this is short and def just an intro; mostly low stakes with a couple random high stakes bits #I feel like board games as just a fun thing is rare in fantasy.....also a great way to develop friendships quickly (irl and in fiction lmao

[mayarab]

BEHOLD THE BEANS!

These are Aliyah (they/them) in the back, Horace (e/em) in the middle and Rumi (he/him) and they are the ace main characters from The Chronicles of Nerezia!

The first one, Awakenings, is already funded on Kickstarter, but you can still help!!!

Blurb and Description

As the city’s eternal apprentice, Horace has never found a clan to belong to. E has joined Trenaze's guards with hopes to finally earn eir place during eir trial day at the Great Market—that is, until the glowing shards haunting the world break through the city's protective dome. Armed with a sword and too little training, Horace doubts in eir ability to defend the market-goers. But eir last stand is interrupted by a mysterious elven figure who can dissipate the shards with a single, strange sentence: your story is my story. 

From the moment it is uttered, Horace knows the sentences holds true for em, too—and when the elf collapses in the middle of the market, e carries them to safety. After an afternoon of board games in their quiet, sharp-witted company, Horace is ready to follow this elf as they seek the forest that haunts their dreams, and answers to the confounding events at the Market. Their story is eir story, and e is willing to confront the dangers of the road to hear their laugh again and finally feel like e belongs.

The Chronicles of Nerezia is a series of nine queer fantasy novellas with non-binary aroace MCs that marries the quiet moments of cozy fantasy and the sweeping twists of epic fantasy. It’s currently running on Kickstarter!

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Author Bio

Claudie Arseneault is an easily-enthused aromantic and asexual writer with a never-ending cycle of obsessions but an enduring love for all things cephalopod and fantasy (together or not!). She writes stories that centre platonic relationships and loves large casts and single-city settings, the most notable of which are the City of Spires series (2017-2023) and Baker Thief (2018).

In addition to her own fiction, Claudie has co-edited Common Bonds (2021), an anthology of aromantic speculative short stories. She is a founding member of The Kraken Collective, an alliance of self-publishing SFF authors, and the creator of the Aromantic and Asexual Characters Database.

#ace week #kickstarter #novella #fantasy book #bookblr #writeblr #fanart #my art #naiveheart #ace characters #canonically ace #brartist #brart #digital art