It's Raining Books: Emissary by E.B. Brooks

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Emissary by E.B. Brooks

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Welcome to It's Raining Books. What group did you hang out with in high school?

Oh, I was a mix. Band nerd, for sure (tuba/sousaphone), and chess club co-founder (the Diamond Lord’s habit of toying with his prey is definitely inherited from those days). But I also ran cross country and track (4x800 was my jam), and I got into pit band for the school musicals every year. So definitely on the nerdy side, but generally versatile.

What are you passionate about these days?

On the broad side? Contending with the changing climate and all the chaotic consequences of that, from preparing the homestead for better resilience (building a goat pen, expanding the rainwater harvesting systems, etc.) to getting the Emissary Quintet out to as many people as possible. On the more relaxed side, I’ve been playing a marathon of all the Legend of Zelda games this year, in in-universe order (as much as one can with the timeline, haha). That’s been a blast.

If you had to do your journey to getting published all over again, what would you do differently?

I’d probably skip the few years where I hadn’t settled on being an indie author and was querying agents. That put me in a stall, and when I realized I wasn’t likely to change my story because of a publisher demand anyway (a consequence of having already drafted five books before querying), I committed to the indie route.

Ebook or print? And why?

It’s hard to beat a hard copy. I’m old enough now (and my kids are old enough to do this as a gift idea) to appreciate the collector’s editions of classics, like Lord of the Rings or Dune. But as a forest scientist and someone very focused on climate change and responses to it, I’m a big supporter of both ebooks (for less paper and shipping) and print (for when the power goes down).

What is your favorite scene in this book?

My favorite scene in Emissary is spoiler-heavy, but the confrontation at the end between Ewan, Tree, and the Diamond Lord gets me fired up every time. An entire book of experience, struggle, suffering, and learning comes together as the character face off, all (or enough) secrets in the open, to fight for the futures they believe in.

Two Worlds. One Future.

Ewan O’Meara is no stranger to death: in recent months, he’s found his way to limbo at least once per week, much to his parents’ concern. It’s a necessary price for getting experience to become the greatest adventurer his homeland of Veridor has ever known, but the overbearing Veridian Church has him pinned down, soaking him for the penance gold to unlock his stats each time he respawns. And because the Church’s ancient war put an end to both the godlike Gems and the epic quests they once bestowed, Ewan has no better alternative.

That is, until he encounters a young woman fleeing arrest from the Church’s soldiers. At first glance, Treanna Rothchild needs it: she’s clueless about Veridian life. But she has other skills that defy Ewan’s understanding, and she knows things. Unsettling, seditious things the Church wants kept secret at any cost.

And she’s in Veridor to raise an army, to fight an enemy only she can see.

Risking both life and soul, Ewan follows Treanna where no Veridian has ever been and there is no respawning. But for him to have a chance at making a real difference in the strange, harsh world she reveals to him, he must first come to terms with it. Especially as he and Treanna discover how much it has in common with Veridor—and how much they depend on each other to survive.

New-adult science fiction, wrapped in gaming and fantasy around a hopepunk core, Emissary is an immersive, thought-provoking adventure with a little teen romance and a lot of heart.

Read an Excerpt

Tree broke contact, then looked at the others. “I’m taking command. Samuel, move Nathan to cover by the lift. Put his feet up, and keep pressure on that wound. We’ll throw down a kit once we can.”

Sam hesitated but nodded, then knelt to scoop Nathan up.

“Love,” Tree said, locking hard, frightened eyes on Ewan. “You’re with me. Loot the corpses. We’ll disguise ourselves, then retake the camel and retreat.”

“What about Gabe and Vincent?”

“They’ll escape with us, if they’re quick enough.”

Ewan swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”

She darted off to one of the bodies, and he stepped over to the robed figure he’d impaled, thinking a bloody gash in his outfit might be less of a giveaway than a giant frapping hole. But when he pulled the robes free, he knew with a sickened jolt that blood was the least of the differences in appearance.

The man’s copper-skinned face was scarred all over in what was obviously a deliberate, artistic pattern, as though he’d mistaken a knife for a pen. His nose and ears were pierced through with bits of metal, with hair and beard braided and bound in wire that could have come from the ruin’s walls. His muscles were lean and hard, far better fed than should have been possible for someone from the Wastes. Even in death he had a feral air about him, a lingering lethal intent that had Ewan half expecting him to leap out of the sands again.

His hand still clutched a gun, hardly bigger than a tablet. Ewan reached for it, hesitated, and left it to retrieve his thrown sword.

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