David Hair is the author of The Bone Tiki, winner of Best First Novel (Young Adult Fiction section) at the 2010 NZ Post Children’s Book Awards. The Bone Tiki and its sequel The Taniwha’s Tear are fantasy novels set in New Zealand. David is a New Zealander, who has worked primarily in financial services. He has a degree in History and Classical Studies. He has lived from 2007 to 2010 in New Delhi, India, but usually resides in Wellington, New Zealand. Apart from writing, he is interested in folklore, history, and has a passion for football.
Mage’s Blood by David Hair
Mage’s Blood, by David Hair, is a sprawling epic clash of civilizations that will seem familiar to those who know their history and world cultures, though the addition of magic and some geographic repositioning keeps it from being simply historical fantasy or fully allegorical.
The setting and premise is given to us in an early (and somewhat clumsy) exposition by two of the characters:
When Kore made this land, he made two great continents [Yuros and Anitopia], separated by vast oceans, and he commanded his sister Luna to make those waters impassable, so that . . . Learned, noble, enlightened West and base, depraved, idolatrous East should never meet . . . but Meiros, an Ascendant . . . built that cursed Bridge . . . For a century we have seen the bridge open every twelve years, when the tides drop . . . Two Moontides ago . . . we marched our armies into Anitopia and we punished the infidel.... Read More
