Welcome to Day One of our Indie Fantasy Advent Calendar! We’re featuring an underrated indie author every day this holiday season to spread a little festive joy and promote authors we think deserve more love. Read our introduction to find out more.
Let’s open day seventeen and see what book lies behind…
Today, on December 17th, we’re opening our calendar to The Phoenix and the Sword by J.C. Snow.
Aili Fallon is desperate.
Determined to escape her past, she refuses to let anything impede her training as a combat nurse – until the woman she’s falling in love with disappears in a fiery tempest, leaving Aili burdened with terrible immortality and destroying flame.
Gambling with her own existence, Aili crosses into a spiritual realm in search of her lost love — the only person that can give her answers. But beneath the life she has known is a life shaped by secrets, and a love that was doomed a thousand years before.
And unless Aili discovers the truth, the powers she now bears will destroy her.
The Phoenix and the Sword is the first book in the Crane Moon Cycle duology, a queer epic fantasy set in a world of spiritual powers, past lives, and beings of myth and legend. Perfect for those looking for a story of love, loss, and redemption that crosses centuries and worlds.
The Crane Moon Cycle is set in a world that includes war and violence, and themes that may be difficult for some readers. Please see the author’s website, jcsnow.com, for list and details.
The Phoenix and the Sword is the first in an epic sapphic fantasy duology that takes inspiration from Chinese-inspired Xianxia cultivation fantasies and is set in a parallel world where demons feed on the horrors of war. Our main character is a combat medic, and it’s not often you see them represented in similar fantasy stories based on war.
The sequel, The Shoreless River, is also available to read, or you can get the complete duology in one beautiful bundle!
In the meantime, check out The Phoenix and the Sword:
About the Author
J. C. Snow (she/her) is a queer fantasy author who lives with her wife, child, dog, and a wild garden in the Bay Area. She writes novels and stories centering queer characters that are inspired by intertwined histories and cultures as well as a wild and unpredictable imagination. She holds a doctorate in Religious Studies from Columbia University and has also published extensively on the history of race and religion in the United States. Her current non-writing life goal is to be certified as a scuba diver.
- Website: JCSnow.com
- Instagram: @jcsnow_author
- Facebook: JCSnow Author
