The Vagabond King

The Vagabond King is a first novel that was published a couple of years ago but has been building up a significant following by readers who know and appreciate the genre. We are going to be re-promoting the book this year as we think it is a good story that deserves to reach more people.

The island of Thelonia can no longer support its people. Even the most privileged are beginning to feel the pinch. The slaves and slum dwellers are starving. The mines, old and new, that scar the landscape, have destroyed the fertility of the land. In mining for ‘Vish’aad’, the Thelonians have destroyed their own country; but Vish’aad is such a powerful substance that they will not halt the destruction. For the wealthy and the powerful, Vish’aad offers heightened senses and strength, freedom from pain and, most seductive of all, immortality. They are prepared to stop at nothing to keep up the supply of this utterly addictive drug. 
Thelonia’s army is immensely powerful. Soldiers, known as the palimore, have size and strength and abilities honed by intense training and regular doses of Vish’aad. They are embarking on an invasion of the mainland, where the land is green and fertile. Thelonia needs resources – most importantly food, but also slaves to work the Vish’aad mines. 
As the palimore ships arrive on the shore, close to the capital Maradah, there is one among them who shares a common ancestry with the mainlanders. Lleu’s mother came from the Waterland, and his blue eyes mark out his mixed parentage. His father is a commander of the palimore who has been raised on military training and Vish’aad, and Lleu is convinced he has no qualms about attacking his ancestral homeland. 
Threon is the young, overindulged, hedonistic prince of Maradah, staggering home from a night of drinking with the soldiers of the capital, to discover the slaughter effected by the palimore. He is badly wounded and only escapes with his life due to the intervention of a darkly hooded hulk of a man. Tied to the man’s horse, he is carried far away from the devastation wreaked by the palimore on his home town, to places where he must learn to survive on his own without any of his old privilege. 
The Vagabond King is the story of Threon and his journey from self-indulgent, spoiled prince to a resourceful and valiant survivor and potential king. It’s also the story of Lleu and his torn loyalties, and of Savanta, a talented young woman living on Thelonia who hopes to lift her family out of poverty with her miraculous invention of a flying machine. Unfortunately for her, it is also a story of the gods, the Vyara, who command control over the different elements of the world. And the god of the air, Zenith, is not happy with Savanta’s attempt to conquer his domain. He transforms her into a creature of flight and uses her to further his long-enduring war against his fellow gods. She is embroiled in the human war by her master and must carry out his commands or die. 
Into a world richly depicted and peopled with a fascinating array of different characters, Jodie Bond has brought another dimension. The Vyara ruthlessly follow their own ends and the humans are manipulated, or forced, to play their part in the ensuing battles. 
This is the first book in a trilogy that promises very well. Bond has created a cast of characters whose struggles and vulnerabilities are enthralling, as they each search to find their way through cataclysmic events.