A warm welcome to author Sunny Moraine joining us today to talk about Riptide’s new release of “Sword and Star”.

Welcome to the SWORD AND STAR blog tour!

SWORD AND STAR is the conclusion of a trilogy I started (with my co-author for LINE AND ORBIT Lisa Soem) over a decade ago. It’s been a long, strange journey and now it’s over. It’s not the first book trilogy I’ve finished, but it’s certainly the closest to my heart.

It’s been amazing getting to know this world and these characters over the course of three books, and it’s been even more amazing getting to share it all with readers. Adam Yuga and Lochlan d’Bideshi’s story is done, Eva Reyes and Kyle Waverly have found their own conclusion, Kae and Leila’s part in this tale is over (though you’ll see those two again in the forthcoming LINEAGE), and I’ve bid a fond farewell to the Bideshi seer Nkiruka. Goodbyes are never easy, but when you arrive at a good one, it’s immensely satisfying.

I’m so grateful to everyone who’s traveled with me, and just as grateful to the people coming to the story now. Whatever category you fall into, I hope you’ll find this final volume a fitting end.

Thank you for being here!

Romance

The Root Code trilogy isn’t exactly a romance, or at least not only a romance, but love is what drives it. A lot of that love is the love between friends and family, but the narrative heart of it is indeed romantic love, and the strength of the bonds it creates.

One of the primary storylines in book one, LINE AND ORBIT, is the story of how love brings two incredibly different people together in a way that makes them far stronger together than they were apart. It’s your standard semi-enemies to lovers story, so it’s not especially new, but I think there’s a reason why these kinds of stories persist. We like them on a really deep level. It’s not just about the comfort of a happy ending; it’s about believing that the best parts of us are stronger than whatever ugliness the universe can throw at us.

I think we all want to believe in the power of love.

In all of my romantic pairings, love overcomes major challenges and heals deep wounds. Most of these people are from very different worlds, even if they’re the same species, or something about their relationship itself threatens to tear them apart. Sometimes the love itself is almost the problem, and the question is whether the good parts of it are strong enough to overcome the bad.

Love in a story like this isn’t going to be worth anything unless it’s tested, and I tried to test it to the limit. These characters and their relationships are pushed nearly to the breaking point. They’re in love, but that doesn’t solve their problems, because the story doesn’t end when the couple gets together. Many of their problems come from within rather than what threatens them externally. They experience conflict, anger with each other, hurtfulness, even mistrust. And as I talk about in another post, conflict between two people who are extremely intimate with each other can be the most painful kind of conflict there is.

When you love someone, you open yourself to them in a way you don’t with anyone else. That means you’re trusting them to not hurt you. That alone takes extraordinary courage, even if we don’t always think of it that way.

So the flipside of trust and happiness and joy and intimacy is fear, pain, anger, and grief. I think those latter are necessary in order to make the former mean anything at all. My characters aren’t just fighting a war outside themselves. There’s also a “war at home”, so to speak: battles between them and their partners, and battles with themselves.

In the end, hopefully, they win through, and then they truly know what they’re fighting for. Which makes their victory so much more powerful than it would be otherwise. In a way, what they went through together was necessary in order for them to be together.

Their love doesn’t only win through because it was strong from the beginning. It wins through because it’s strengthened by the pain and fear they experience, and emerges stronger than ever.

I think those are our favorite stories about love. I think those are the best ones.

About Sword and Star

Three months after a brutal battle at Peris, Adam Yuga, Lochlan D’Bideshi, and their rebel fleet are embroiled in a new conflict. But things aren’t going well. Even with Lock’s homeship, Ashwina, at the head of the fleet, the Protectorate forces are adapting to their tactics. Before long, two devastating blows send the ragtag rebels on the run. But the greatest threat may come from within.

Since the battle at Peris, Protectorate loyalist Isaac Sinder’s determination to eliminate the rebel fleet has only intensified—along with his ambition. The Protectorate is decaying, and it’s clear to Isaac that only he can save it, by any means necessary.

As the situation worsens for the rebels, the strain begins to tell on everyone. But more than exhaustion grows within Adam. Something alien has started to change him. Lochlan fights to hold on, but even he may not be able to follow Adam down the dark road ahead.

As Isaac’s obsession turns to insanity, it becomes evident that more sinister plans than his are at work. Bound together by threads of fate and chance, Adam and Lochlan turn their eyes toward a future that may tear them apart—if they’re lucky enough to survive it at all.

Buy Links:

Riptide Publishing

Amazon

About Sunny Moraine

Sunny Moraine’s short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Nightmare, Lightspeed, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, and multiple Year’s Best collections, among other places. They are also responsible for the novels Line and Orbit (cowritten with Lisa Soem), Labyrinthian, and the Casting the Bones trilogy, as well as A Brief History of the Future: collected essays. In addition to authoring, Sunny is a doctoral candidate in sociology and a sometimes college instructor; that last may or may not have been a good move on the part of their department. They unfortunately live just outside Washington DC in a creepy house with two cats and a very long-suffering husband.

Connect with Sunny:

• Website: sunnymoraine.com
• Goodreads: goodreads.com/Sunny_Moraine
• Tumblr: dynamicsymmetry.tumblr.com
• Twitter: @dynamicsymmetry
• Facebook: facebook.com/sunny.moraine

To celebrate the release of Sword and Star, Sunny is giving away a signed copy of the book and a handmade necklace. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 28, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!