When you look up “beautiful writing” in the dictionary (just go with it…), there’s just a picture of Roshani Chokshi. I have read all of Roshani’s books and there’s something about her writing voice that lends itself so well to the fantasy genre. The way she introduces the world is always just perfectly lyrical and descriptive and flowy and I could wax-poetic all day.
But don’t just take my word for it—keep reading for a brief synopsis and exclusive excerpt from STAR-TOUCHED STORIES.
The 411: STAR-TOUCHED STORIES is a collection of three short stories set in the universe of THE STAR-TOUCHED QUEEN and A CROWN OF WISHES.
Death and Night: He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a chance meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. But danger crouches in their paths, and the choices they make will set them on a journey that will span lifetimes.
Poison and Gold: Now that her wish for a choice has come true, Aasha struggles to control her powers. But when an opportunity to help Gauri and Vikram’s new reign presents itself, she will have to battle her insecurities and maybe, along the way, find love.
Rose and Sword: There is a tale whispered in the dark of the Empire of Bharat-Jain. A tale of a bride who loses her bridegroom on the eve of her wedding. But is it a tale or a truth?
ExCLUSIVE EXcerpt
Night’s dance thrummed with purpose. Her grace sharpened into a lathe, and with it she sculpted the promise of tomorrow from nothing but shadows. She was potential incarnate. When she shaped shadows to every sleep-creased fold in the earth, she was balancing time, wiping slates clean, allowing any beginning to take shape. When she frosted night over the world, dawn whispered the lyrics of every tomorrow: here is a thing not yet started, here is a thing of magic. My own halfhearted attempts of invention paled before her. She was the beginning of all ideas.
And before her, I was humbled.
Her laughter was still ringing in my ears when I arrived back to the palace. Gupta was meditating upside down and cracked open an eye when he saw me.
“Oh no,” he said, paling. “Not a single insult? My sherwani jacket is practically around my head.”
“I can see that.”
My hounds ran up to me, snuffling my palms with bemused expressions. I scratched their ears absentmindedly.
“What did she do to you?”
She had laughed at me. And made me laugh at myself. And she had been freely honest. People always threw their honesty and last secrets at me, as if by expelling them in a dying breath, they could shorten their time in the less savory parts of my kingdom. But she had given her honesty without expectation. And her honesty was a gift.
About the author
ROSHANI CHOKSHI is the New York Times bestselling author of The Star-Touched Queen, A Crown of Wishes, and Aru Shah and the End of Time. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Shimmer, and Book Smugglers. Her short story, “The Star Maiden,” was longlisted for the British Fantasy Science Award.
Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press for including me on the blog tour and for my galley.