Action, Belonging and Diversity: Read an extract from Scorch Dragons by Amie Kaufman

New York Times bestselling author Amie Kaufman is a master at creating large scale drama and balancing this with the minute and intricate detail of the alternate worlds that fantasy readers demand.

Hot on the heels ofThe Ice Wolves, the first in her highly praised Elementals series, is the just released Scorch Dragons and the good news is, it’s every bit as good. After the dramatic battle between the Wolves and the Dragons in the last book, the two clans are understandably wary of one another. For Anders and his twin sister Rayna things have progressively become more complicated when in an unprecedented turn of events, Anders is able to transform into a wolf and Rayna a dragon. So, where does their allegiance lie?

Anders and his Wolf friend Lisabet have found themselves in Drekhelm, the mountain home of the Dragons after the battle. At the end of the last book Anders was forced to fight against his own Wolf family to stop irreparable damage between the two sides. But now hisown people feel betrayed by him and the Dragons are highly suspicious. No one it seems,can really understand why Anders and Lisabet put the greater good before their own personal allegiances.

At least when they are at Drekhelm, Anders can be with his twin Rayna. Wolves however, are not usually welcome in the home headquarters of the Dragons and there are many who don’t want Anders and Lisabet to stay. When they find out that Wolves have stolen an artefact called the Snow stone from the Dragons, Anders and Lisabet become alarmed. The Snow stone can alter the weather and the one way that the Wolves can overcome the Dragons is by significantly decreasing the temperature of their homeland.

Now it seems both sides are getting ready for an attack that will succeed in separating the two worlds permanently. Anders, Lisabet, Rayna and friends Ellukka, Mikkel and Theo along with the helping hands of Haydn (Wolf) and Leif (Dragon) set off on a mission to make sure that there is an even playing field between the two sides. But with suspicions rife and tensions high it’s far from easy to save the Wolves and the Dragons from themselves. That is until they are given a helping hand via a secret family map.

This leads the small group on some wonderful adventures to find the Sun Sceptre. That it’s scattered across several places and the map that is anything but straightforward, makes things that bit more exciting!

Read our full review | Purchase a copy of Elementals: Scorch Dragons | Read a Q&A with Amie Kaufman

Her multi-award-winning work has been described as ‘a game-changer’ (Shelf Awareness) and ‘out-of-this-world awesome’ (Kirkus Reviews). Amie lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, their rescue dog, and an extremely large personal library.