Farewell to Tyrn -- New Science-Fantasy Novelette

[Ryan Harvey]

Length: 9,000 word novelette.

“Harvey conjures his fantastic settings with sparkling, evocative prose narrated at a crackling pace. Watch this guy.” — Howard Andrew Jones, author of Desert of Souls

On the continent of Ahn-Tarqa, where science and magic are one, and humans share the land with great saurians, all races have in common a dreadful ailment: the disease known as “The Sorrow.” A lingering hopelessness with no cure. A fear of life itself.

But for twelve-year-old Belde, her days in the city of Tyrn, playing in the streets with her whip-smart dinosaur pet Rint, seem far removed from the Sorrow she sees in others. Then, one burning summer day, cruel sorcerers from the masked race known as “The Shapers” slither from their black towers into Tyrn and knock on the door of the workshop of Belde's father.

Belde is about to drop into a nightmare that will carry her and Rint across the city, fleeing from the Shapers’ twisted killers, and into the glaring light of the truth about her life—a truth that echoes over all Ahn-Tarqa with the sound of the word “Sorrowless.”

Ryan Harvey, winner of the Writers of the Future Award, continues the adventure in the science-fantasy setting of his story “An Acolyte of Black Spires” with this new novelette of action, heartbreak, and discovery.

Purchase "Farewell to Tyrn"

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[Steverino]

What a dynamite cover.  My favorite part is the bas relief of the -- what the heck are those? -- plesiosaurs with the crossed necks.  What a way to communicate what sort of society this is.  Neat!

[Ryan Harvey]

Yes, those are supposed to be plesiosaurs. I gave my artist a couple of images of plesiosaurs and pictures of the frescoes and mosaics of dolphins from the walls of the palace of Knossos on Crete and said, "This is what I think Tyrn's decor should look liked." He nailed it. The world is entirely "saurian" based, with mammals (aside from the humans) no larger than rodents. (Why the world exists this way is something that is developing over the story series.) I decided most of their art would be dinosaur-based.

This is one of the images I sent the artist as a guide:

[Ryan Harvey]

Farewell to Tyrn has pulled in some superb  reviews in its first week-and-a-half, particularly this one from a reader's blog: http://bit.ly/zdcU6S. "A wonderful reading experience. A good 'entry point' for Harvey's Ahn-Tarqa. I hope Ryan Harvey writes more."

Oh don't worry . . . there's more coming! I'm hoping to report good news soon on my novel Turn over the Moon, which follows on events in "Farewell to Tyrn."

[Ryan Harvey]

"Farewell to Tyrn" has received another five-star review, this one from one of the writers at The Kindle Review: http://bit.ly/z9bAzE

[Ryan Harvey]

"Farewell to Tyrn" is getting some topflight reviews from bloggers, such as this one: http://bit.ly/HIKIsY

There are publishers interested in the novel follow-up, Turn over the Moon, but to get to them moving faster, let's drum up interest in "Farewell to Tyrn" and the land of Ahn-Tarqa! As the above reviewer writes, "if the novelette is anything to go by, Turn over the Moon is definitely a novel to look out for."

[Fullmetalelf]

I have to admit, I didn't think it was unusual to see a little girl with a pet dinosaur on the front cover...

WAIT!? What?! A dinosaur pet?! Why the hell didn't I think it was unusual seeing that!!?? (perhaps I've grown too accustomed to humanoid reptilians in my books lol) Looks awesome, good luck with it my friend

[Ryan Harvey]

The pet dinosaur, Rint, is also Belde's sidekick, since he has unusually high intelligence and has learned crude "sign language" communication with her through clicks and body motions ("Where we go?" "What we do?" "Enemy!"). I based him on an acutal dinosaur, the Gasparinisaura, fossils of which were found in Argentina. My cover artist, Fred Jordan, used scientific reconstructions of the Gaspirinisaura as the basis for the image.

[Ryan Harvey]

There's news coming soon about more Ahn-Tarqa stories, so check out "Farewell to Tyrn" and prepare for the Sorrowless War! And more dinosaurs!