Trudi Canavan, born in 1969, is an Australian writer of fantasy novels, best known for her trilogy The Black Magician. She was nominated several times and won the Aurealis Award, What is the Aurealis Award, i hear you say? Well here comes an interesting fact: The Aurealis Award for excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian SciFi,
Fantasy and Horror fiction and their writers and…wait for it - only Australians are eligible for the award!
Canavan’s advice for the aspiring writers is: “The best way to improve your writing is to write. A lot.” In contrast to other fantasy/science fiction authors, Canavan is appreciative of fan fiction – that might be something worth looking into.
Between 2005 and 2006 she has published a trilogy entitled The Age of Five consisting of three volumes: Priestess of the White, Last of the Wilds and Voice of the Gods. In these books we get to know Auraya and Leiard, a couple which proves through their trials and tribulations that no rules are too sacred to be not broken.
She, Auraya, is a simple girl who lived in the village with her parents and used to spend time in the woods with her 20-ish years older male friend, studying the ins and outs of healing and using herbs to prepare potions.
One unforeseen event changes her fate forever. She is offered to
leave her poor life behind and become a priestess of Circlian cult that worships The Five – five Gods who survived the great War of the Gods. As if there was a helping hand pushing her forward, quickly she advances and reaches the highest rank of Priestess of the White.
At this point, at the age of 26, she becomes immortal and fears ageing no more. When one day her old friend announces his arrival in the capital city where she carries out her duties of The Highest Priestess… she cannot possibly imagine
the things that are about to take place. But she is not a little girl anymore and must not forget that Leiard is a Dreamweaver, and his people are pretty much despised by Circlians due to old feuds.
Nevertheless, there is a sweet sacrilege that Auraya is willing to commit and will have to pay for.
He, Leiard, is a man without clear memories about his past. He is a Dreamweaver who is an outcast even among his own
community. He lives a simple life and stays away from the big events of this world. He is around 35, even that he is not sure about. He teaches Auraya, a girl from the village, the only one that he can stand being around, how to be delicate and caring. Deep in his heart he hopes that in the future she will follow in his footsteps and become a Dreamweaver. But the fate decides differently and Auraya is taken away.
Even though Leiard is afraid of big cities and crowds of people, when he spots the chance to meet his old student by becoming a messenger, he takes that risk. He arrives only to find out that Auraya has turned into a beautiful woman and all of her good attributes and talents are in full bloom now, but at the same time – the invisible wall between them rears its ugly head, because so much has changed since their carefree moments in the woods.
Tormented by doubts, one step at the time he finds a way back to the one who used to care about deeply and dearly and discovers new feelings for Auraya. Evoking old memories and being around her gives a painful tingle to his heart. Could this be? This is so wrong, but so tempting to shed the mask of decency… along with shedding clothes. After all, they’ve preserved so many warm feelings for each other and since Dreamweavers don’t age as quickly as normal humans… their age difference is a less of an issue now.
Especially Auraya understands that there are things bigger than them in this world. Her sense of duty takes over, but the things have already happened and there will be consequences. If the rules of the world can be broken, maybe they can be rewritten as well?
It was just love, a quick flame, a reckless game between two rebelliously pounding hearts… but it started a revolution and brought revelation. On the ashes of the old world, a new world will be built and new order will be brought, in which they can be together. One day.