Heartland (all you need to know)
Order: Amazon | B & N | Powell’s
The Pitch:
Markham returns to Paris where he lost his love, and nearly his life. The ancient order of manipulative magicians that once cast him out is now in turmoil . . . a turmoil made all the greater by the swaths of destruction that Markham tried to avert in the Pacific Northwest.
Teamed with an unlikely partner, Markham seeks to overturn the corrupt remains of an order no longer able to police its own practitioners. Yet, he can’t escape the feeling that he’s still just a pawn in a larger game.
The second novel of the Codex of Souls furthers explores the strange occult world first introduced in Lightbreaker. Mark Teppo’s vision of a magical underworld is a non-stop adventure that continues to bring new light to the occult origins of our history.
Mass Market Paperback ISBN: 978-1-59780-155-3
Published by Night Shade Books
The Blurbs:
“Mark Teppo’s CODEX OF SOULS is fine fantasy noir. If you like Twilight and Supernatural, then this could well be your cup of very black tea.”
—Greg Bear, author of Darwin’s Radio
The Reviews:
Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf: “The Codex of Souls is without a doubt one of the most original Urban Fantasy series going right now. It has stepped away from the pack and embraced a different type of magic and a very different sensibility worth checking out.” [full review - 02.19.10]
The Notes:
From: Mark Teppo (darkline@ . . . )
Sent: Monday, August 25th, 2008
To: Jeremy Lassen (. . . @nightshadebooks.com)
Subject: Heartland copy notes
A couple of notes about the back copy text.
1. Let’s keep with the light imagery. How about “Seek the Light” for the top blurb? Matching with the notation on the bonus chapter from HEARTLAND in the back of LIGHTBREAKER.
2. “Teamed with an unlikely partner” is great, by the way. Everyone will assume it is [redacted], but it is actually [redacted] and so I like the set-up given by that phrase.
3. HEARTLAND is a bit of a semantic play like LIGHTBREAKER. It’s [redacted] “heart,” and the “land” in the Authurian/Fisher King sense. The resolution being that the heart and the land are one (as in “World Soul”), so to “embrace” it would be to recognize [redacted] and to become the Fisher King. And, well, there’s a further twist, but it would really give away the end to tell you now, but I think it works much like “lightbreaker” does, in the end, for Markham.
