Radiant

A Novel

By: Karina Sumner-Smith

Narrated by: Jeena Yi

Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Xhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City's floating Towers. When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman's ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai's home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body, any body, so that it can regain its position, while the Tower's rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death. With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.

©2014 Karina Sumner-Smith (P)2014 Audible Inc.

excellent story love the characters

This book kept me on the edge of my seat great characters and plot. I really enjoyed it.

Fabulous new trilogy from a promising young author

If you could sum up Radiant in three words, what would they be?

immersive, provocative, exciting

What was one of the most memorable moments of Radiant?

The moment in which the protagonist swears her protection and devotion to another. This not only marks a watershed in her life, but forever cements what is one of the more profound relationships I've ever come across in genre fiction.

What about Jeena Yi’s performance did you like?

The tone of her voice is perfect for the protagonist. Most of the time I thought she was bang on in her interpretation of the dialogue and narrative, but occasionally I felt her to be a little too monotone.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Like Game of Thrones, Radiant foregrounds systems of power and control that privilege some at the expense of others. The exploitation of Radiants was truly horrifying. Try as I might, I could not dismiss this as only fiction - it resonates too powerfully with human history.

Any additional comments?

Part way through, I realized that this was the first genre novel I have come across where the main protagonists are both female, and the key relationship is one of friendship, not romance - a refreshing, and deeply insightful variation. Radiant defies generic categories, mixing elements of magic, zombie-culture, post apocalyptic literature, quest-based story-telling and science fiction in a truly engaging tale. You won't be able to put it down once you start, and it will stay with you afterwards. I can't wait for the next two!

Excellent characters and storytelling

Best thing I've listened to in a long while. The story was interesting with wonderful world building; the characters were realistic and the main characters enthralling. The narrator had a flexible and pleasant voice that made for easy listening and the writing was very poetic. Highly recommended!

Enjoyable, but I feel some ideas may have been stolen.

If you read the Skylark series by Meagan Spooner, published in October 2012, you will find many similarities in storyline, even to the point using a same character name. This book was published 2 years after Skylark, so I feel that the author may have had some inspiration from that series. Overall the book was still enjoyable though and I will be continuing on to the sequel.

One great difference that this book had compared to many other YA novels was that the growing friendship throughout the book was between to girls with no romance anywhere. It was good to get away from the typical YA reads that almost always involve a growing romance.

Kinda bleh

The story was ok if a little disjointed. My biggest problem was the narration. The narration didn't really reflect the emotion or the feeling of the story which made it feel like a monologue.