The ocean is rising … Straight up!
“On a bluff above the sea lived a gargoyle, a tree, two bards, and their various children.”
Gorlen and Plenth, the wandering bards in question, have quit a life of rambling to raise their daughter Aiku in peace at the edge of a curious sea. Aiku’s other father is the gargoyle Spar, who is also husband to a songwood tree and father to a young grove. It’s no more unusual than most families, and their life no less ordinary … until one extraordinary day, when the messenger birds Aiku loves begin to deliver ominous notes and soon flap away in a frenzy, like a storm fleeing before an even greater storm.
Their warning, meant only for birds, becomes clear to all when the ocean abandons its bed and sails into the sky, carrying off all its denizens (not to mention every ship), while revealing an eerie land of murk and mystery below.
While some might hesitate to plunge into that vaporous realm, for our heroic parents, waiting is not an option. For even as the ocean rose, Aiku was carried off to the lands beneath it, caught in a conflict between elder guardians and illicit sorceries. With no idea what they’re getting themselves into, our bards and gargoyle head straight into the dim new world.
Will the levitating sea crash down again and drown them? Or might it float away to the stars, taking Aiku with it?
Only in the depths beneath the Oversea, at a place of power where ancient forces forgotten and forbidden converge, will all the pieces and the players come together. The stakes, and the tides, have never been higher.
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“It’s timeless and old school, moving at a nonfrenetic pace, yet curiously full of contemporary relevance and excitement….If you are craving a book that will transport you ‘beyond the fields we know,’ then Underneath the Oversea is your magic striding giant or floating barquentine.”
— Locus
“The stakes are high, there is much danger and some loss; but also there is comedy, and sweetness, and love.”
— Black GateBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Marc Laidlaw is best known as one of the creators and lead writer of the Half-Life videogame series, but he initially got that gig on the strength of his short stories and novels of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. His novel The 37th Mandala won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel. A writer at Valve since 1997, his short stories continue to appear in various magazines and online venues.
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.