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The Sunbird Chronicles is a complete series of four riveting Young Adult fantasy novels.  Each book clocks in at a fast-paced 90,000 words.  Set in a strikingly-unique, yet intimately approachable world, The Sunbird Chronicles is a character-driven and cleverly-plotted saga that strains the rusty shackles of its genre while remaining a sure bet in a literary market buffeted with economic uncertainty.  This original, daring vision stirs together Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising and Jeanne DuPrau’s City of Ember with The Chronicles of Narnia. It draws inspiration from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia while maintaining a modern, distinctive flare, and is much more subtle in its use of spiritual symbolism. Ursula K. LeGuin’s gorgeously-written, alternate world of Earthsea, whose imaginative geography was essential to the plot, has also inspired The Sunbird Chronicles. Additionally, I believe that The Sunbird Chronicles serves as a fitting counterweight to Philip Pullman’s popular His Dark Materials trilogy.  I firmly believe that these books will have strong appeal in both commercial and Christian literary markets.  I also heavily subscribe to the philosophy that YA is a point-of-view, not a state-of-mind.  I am currently seeking representation for Book One: Arrow of the Sunbird and I would be happy to share a partial or a full ms with interested agents. (Contact me here.)

YOU ARE ABOUT TO EMBARK UPON A CHRONICLE OF EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY…

BOOK ONE: ARROW OF THE SUNBIRD

Renue Aarowyne longs to escape. After all, life as crown prince in a realm paralyzed by drought and war, perched on a stair-step world of indomitable cliffs, can be rather suffocating for a spirited and precocious youth. But there are more than the average doses of wanderlust and teen angst compelling the Prince of Bennu to flee home: lately he’s been haunted by unsettling visions of his own death.  Are sinister forces from beyond the insurmountable cliff really conspiring to kill him before he matures into an instrument of prophecy, or has he finally earned that trip to the Wiggard’s Ward?

In these dark times, Bennwyns await the fabled sunbird Solace, promised by scripture to usher in a new age, but the prince has no patience for old myths. Hunted and hungry for answers, Renue leaves home on a quest to unlock the forces brewing within him, guided toward destiny by a mysterious arrow-mounted sundial. In his pursuit of the truth, he and his fellowship awaken an unspeakable evil, and they decipher more than the sundial’s intriguing clues: they unearth an awesome secret that alters the very foundations of their world.

BOOK TWO: HEIR of the DARK MOON

Four years have passed since Renue was crowned King of Bennu, and he finds his nation on the brink of war.  The drought has worsened and instigators of civil unrest still meddle with the realm from within the walled citadel of Trinia.  The Gavilan warrior Alabast returns to Bennu with dire news from across the Shadow Expanse:  the Heir of Lord Nefaris has amassed a great army and plans to wash over the realm.  Renue must unite his untested forces with the unfriendly Trinians in order to hold back the evil tide.

During a fateful encounter with the sunbird Solace, Renue is commanded not to join his forces in battle. He is instructed instead to seek a mysterious oracle along the Inner Cliff.  Meanwhile, will Aaron’s clever tricks win the day, in spite of an enemy that wields modern weaponry beyond Bennu’s grasp?  During the confusion and horror of war, Clarissa is taken hostage by the enemy.  She learns the shocking true identity of the Heir of Lord Nefaris as he kidnaps her across the Shadow Expanse.  Brashly, Aaron orders his weary forces into the Shadow, desperate to rescue the girl he secretly loves…

Renue reaches the oracle along the Inner Cliff and discovers that it contains a stairway stretching like a dark esophagus toward the next step of the Stair.  He begins to climb, and finds that in the darkness a ghostly and menacing presence accompanies him…

BOOK THREE: EMBERS OF SHADOW

Renue climbs endlessly toward the next tier of the world.  The spirit alongside him tempts him and teases him and fills him with foreboding.  He discovers too late that he has been possessed by the Malstar itself.  Will his spiritual battle with the demon god of the dark moon transform him into the very instrument of prophecy that the Malstar has so feared, or will he arise on the world’s next stair step as the dread Sinluz, the ultimate sorcerer apostle of the demon god?

Meanwhile, Aaron, clouded by a desperate desire to rescue Clarissa, leads his army into a trap.  They intend to invade Catharta and defeat their enemy while it licks its wounds, but find that the city hides an even more powerful force than the one they had fought along the Shadow Expanse.  Can Aaron and Alabast rescue Clarissa in time?  Will the shocking secrets she has learned reach their ears, and will this knowledge even help the realm of Bennu in its quest to retake the upper hand against an enemy far beyond their ability?

BOOK FOUR: TEAR OF THE SUNBIRD

I’m not really sure how to summarize this book without creating spoilers for the other three books.  So, for now, I’ll simply say that in this final, riveting volume, Renue must tackle his own demons and confront the Heir of Lord Nefaris himself, and the path to victory for his realm and the path to redemption for his enemies may require a great deal of sacrifice.