Every Friday, we here @ Del Rey Spectra will place a 50 page excerpt of a selected title on Suvudu. Whether it is science fiction, epic fantasy, alternate history, horror, urban fantasy, paranormal, the possibilities are endless.
Elizabeth Moon’s latest installment in her Paladin Legacy saga promises to live up to the epic, fast-paced, and intricate plots we’ve come to expect from the first two books in the series. ECHOES OF BETRAYAL showcases this author’s vivid imagination and her first-hand military experience, and though her unique qualities may seem to mix perfectly for a book like this, Moon herself admits that it wasn’t the easiest book to write. That said, let’s hear directly from the author:
“I always knew there were more stories to be written in the world where Paksenarrion became a paladin, and I always knew I would write them. In fact, I had a very clear idea of the next book-sized story I would write, even though it was more than twenty years after writing the Deed of Paksenarrion. After all, I had carefully saved the notebooks full of sketches, background information (far beyond what was in the original books) and the master map (ditto.) I had the original books. Plus twenty-odd years more experience writing fiction. How hard could it be?
Surprise. Those carefully saved notebooks? Not where I clearly remember leaving them. Much of what I needed was not in the existing books, either. That master map? Also missing from its supposedly secure storage tube. I’ve had to draw a new master map. The story–once begun–took off at a gallop in a completely different direction than I’d planned. As a smack-down to the writer who thought she was in control this time, it was brilliant.
I was thrown back into the world of Paks in the same way I’d first met it–knowing little and learning more with every paragraph. I had to immerse myself in that world–smell it, touch it, hear the wind in the trees, the crunch of footsteps on gravel, see the shapes and colors, meet and live with the people until I knew them as well as before. It’s been enormous fun (and a lot of work.) Echoes of Betrayal is volume three in Paladin’s Legacy, the middle–or hinge–of what will be five volumes. Minor characters from earlier books have shoved their way into center stage; subplots have burgeoned like a pumpkin vine in a warm spring, and the first signs of what is to come in the last volume are just emerging.”
As always, feel free to give us feedback in the comments. Or let us know on Twitter via a direct message to our esteemed Twitter maven, editor David Pomerico: www.twitter.com/delreyspectra. Or write on the wall of our Facebook page: Like us at www.facebook.com/delreyspectra
Please enjoy this excerpt of ECHOES OF BETRAYAL by Elizabeth Moon, on sale February 21st!



ONLY GETTING BLANK PAGES WHEN EXCERPT. DOWNLOADED.