The author, on Ivan's contribution to her writing:I like to go for long walks to think and let the book simmer. Ivan likes to go for walks to stop and chat with everyone and socialize with every dog and small child in the neighbourhood, all of whom he knows by name. These two intentions in walking aren’t really compatible. He’s the village gossip. However, he’s very good about...[read on]About Johansen's latest novel, The Leopard, from the publisher:
Part one of a two-book epic fantasy, set in a world as richly drawn as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but with Mideastern and Eastern flavors.Visit K. V. Johansen's website.
Ahjvar, the assassin known as the Leopard, wants only to die, to end the curse that binds him to a life of horror. Although he has no reason to trust the goddess Catairanach or hermessenger Deyandara, fugitive heir to a murdered tribal queen, desperation leads him to accept her bargain: if he kills the mad prophet known as the Voice of Marakand, Catairanach will free him of his curse. Accompanying him on his mission is the one person he has let close to him in a lifetime of death, a runaway slave named Ghu. Ahj knows Ghu is far from the half-wit others think him, but in Marakand, the great city where the caravan roads of east and west meet, both will need to face the deepest secrets of their souls, if either is to survive the undying enemies who hunt them and find a way through the darkness that damns the Leopard.
To Marakand, too, come a Northron wanderer and her demon verrbjarn lover, carrying the obsidian sword Lakkariss, a weapon forged by the Old Great Gods to bring their justice to the seven devils who escaped the cold hells so long before.
The Page 69 Test: The Leopard.
Read--Coffee with a Canine: K.V. Johansen & Ivan.
--Marshal Zeringue
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