Echoes of Understorey: A Titan's Forest Novel

by Thoraiya Dyer Narrated by Christine Marshall

Overview

Listeners return to the mythical rainforest ruled by reincarnated gods in the quest fantasy Echoes of Understorey, the heart-pounding sequel to Thoraiya Dyer's Crossroads of Canopy.

Great deeds are expected of Imeris.

Raised by accomplished warriors and skilled healers, and being the sister to a goddess, Imeris always felt pressured to be the best fighter in Understorey. Yet during a mission to capture the body-snatching sorceress Kirrik, Imeris fails disastrously. With death on her conscience and in hiding from her peers, Imeris climbs up to the sun-kissed world of Canopy to learn new ways to defeat Kirrik. What she doesn't expect is to be recruited in a Hunt for the Ages, against a terrifying divine monster that will take all of her skills to stop.

"I am majorly impressed. A unique, gorgeous, and dangerous world!”-Tamora Pierce

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 01/29/2018
Dyer’s expansive second Titan’s Forest fantasy (after Crossroads of Canopy) finds turmoil and prejudice in the human cities of Canopy, Understorey, and Floor, which all exist within colossal trees. Understorian Imeris, the best fighter in the Loftfol training school, hopes to achieve glory by killing the body-snatching sorceress Kirrik, a task her three adoptive fathers have failed to accomplish. After Imeris and Oldest-Father encounter Kirrik in Floor and suffer a devastating defeat, Imeris looks to gain knowledge and skills from her new friend, the sad but gifted green-skinned shape-shifter Anahah. Suddenly, Imeris is conscripted into a hunt to kill a rampaging patchwork creature that was created by the vindictive goddess Orin of Canopy to destroy her traitorous bodyguard. In confronting the creature, Imeris, Anahah, the burly slave Daggad, and blacksmith Sorros (whose daughter’s body Kirrik now inhabits) travel between Canopy and Understorey, use magical artifacts, confront the evils of slavery, seek Imeris’s birth parents, and dodge the petty whims of living deities. There’s far more to this story than can easily be summarized, and readers will savor its intricacy, depicted in evocative prose (“the monsoon greeted her with a wet slap across the face”). Dyer skillfully weaves elements of mythology, family loyalty, and divine destiny into a distinctive, enchanting, and complete world. Agent: Evan Gregory, Ethan Ellenberg Literary. (Feb.)

From the Publisher

Dyer skillfully weaves elements of mythology, family loyalty, and divine destiny into a distinctive, enchanting, and complete world.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review, on Echoes of Understorey

Praise for Crossroads of Canopy in the Titan's Forest series

“Readers will be delighted by Dyer’s polished prose and an exquisite new world of intricate mythology, rituals, and politics.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“I am majorly impressed with Thoraiya Dyer's Crossroads of Canopy. A unique, gorgeous, and dangerous world, a stubborn female hero, and a writer to watch!”—Tamora Pierce

“A glorious botanical quest fantasy. Crossroads of Canopy is everything I hoped for of a Thoraiya Dyer novel — vivid worldbuilding, complex characters and an evil sense of humour. It’s rare to find an epic fantasy that’s so radically different to anything else out there, so treasure this book, grubs and all.” —Hugo and Ditmar Award-winning author Tansy Rayner Roberts

“For her striking first novel Crossroads of Canopy, Thoraiya Dyer reworks the stuff of epic fantasy in ways that seem organic, rooted in the natural world but just as true to human experience.” —Locus magazine

“Recommended for readers who appreciate nuanced world building, as both Canopy and Understorey are strange, fleshed-out lands thrown into turmoil.”—Booklist

"Crossroads of Canopy has everything you expect from a great epic—quests, fearless warriors, gods born again—but all is transmuted, through the rich and vivid original setting, into something entirely new." —Brian Staveley, author of The Last Mortal Bond

“Dyer presents a rich, brutal, fascinating world and an unforgettable heroine.” —Ilana C. Myer, author of Last Song Before Night

“A remarkable debut. What a delight to read a fantasy so different from the mainstream and so beautifully realised.” —Juliet Marillier, winner of the Aurealis Award and the Alex Award

“A stunningly original debut fantasy set in a lush and deadly treetop realm, amidst the kingdoms of thirteen relentlessly reincarnated gods, where disobedience is punished by a draining of magic and nobody lives who falls.” —Cat Sparks, author of Lotus Blue

“Imaginative, original, inclusive – and fast-paced and exciting. Go get it and read it. Maybe twice.” —Pamela Freeman, author of The Castings Trilogy

"Dyer's writing seamlessly melds a lush and layered canopy setting and a complex magical culture to form a unique fantasy world, filled with memorable characters in constant jeopardy. Unar, a girl on the brink of womanhood, is at the heart of the tale. Feisty, opinionated, certain of her own destiny, she's a tough flawed heroine, one readers will not easily forget." —Glenda Larke, author of The Stormlord Trilogy and The Forsaken Lands Trilogy

"Dyer is a writer of immense talent. Her powerful, distinctive voice makes Crossroads of Canopy a fully immersive read, so well-written and believable it will have you checking to see if the realms of Canopy, Understorey and Floor really exist." —Kaaron Warren, author of Walking the Tree

“Thoraiya Dyer has woven a world of gods and magic, a merciless forest where the slightest misstep can send the unwary, the unworthy, or the simply unfortunate plunging to an unremarked doom. Guiding us through the heights of this remarkable place is a young woman, Unar. Scrappy, complex and surprisingly compassionate, she must fight to establish a place for herself among the trees. If Crossroads of Canopy explores the cost of caring, it also examines the even higher price of indifference. It is a riveting novel.” —A.M. Dellamonica, author of A Daughter of No Nation

"A wonderful, magical, poetic, tragic novel...a major achievement." —Jenny Blackford, World Fantasy Award judge, author of The Priestess and the Slave

"The book is quite marvelous. Tons of cultural richness. Complex and casually cruel...Thoraiya Dyer is the writer I most want to infect people with." —Anna Tambour, World Fantasy Award-shortlisted author of Crandolin

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171954185
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	02/13/2018
Series:	Titan's Forest , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged

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