Stonewiser: The Call of the Stone

written by Dora Machado

(2009)

ISBN: 978-0-9799682-2-8

08.23.09

In the second installment of The Stonewiser Series, Dora Machado picks up where she left off in her first novel, Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone.

This fantasy novel is about a young heroine named, Sariah. The action begins right at the beginning of the story, when Sariah is taken prisoner and will soon be executed for her sins against The Rotten Domain. Fortunately, she is saved before an untimely death by her friend and former lover, Kael, and his band of followers. Kael makes a pact with the executioners that Sariah will go out and do what is needed to unite The Goodlands and The Rotten Domain, to its former self – a land where everyone is treated equally and with respect. But if Sariah does not do this in a certain time period, she is to return to The Rotten Domain and be executed.

Through Sariah’s journey to unite the two former lands into one coexisting inhabitance; she is attacked by eels, hunted by The Shield (who don’t care that the executioners have a deal with Kael and Sariah), imprisonment, and is rejected by her own people – Stonewisers – people that use special stones to perform a variety of magical elements to use to their advantage. She must overcome all these obstacles by using her Stonewiser talents to bring back items the executioners demanded of her which will help reunite the two lands.

As you may or may not know by now, I am a horror fan and writer. I normally do not read or write anything even close to fantasy. Although, having said that, I was pleasantly surprised with this novel. Parts of it I would almost classify as dark fantasy. Machado created some great characters and fascinating scenes. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that I will be going out and picking up the first book in this series and am eagerly waiting for the third installment.

So I guess you could say... I’m hooked. I now consider myself a lifelong Machado fan.