The Roar of the Lost Horizon by K.N. Salustro
What's It About?
A swashbuckling fantasy pirate novel following a young man who dreams of using his wind magic to sail for the imperial navy. When a pirate captain invites him to join her crew, he sets out on the adventure of a lifetime.When a light breeze blows across the water, Nate can sense it. He should be able to harness that wind, control it and do his duty to assist the imperial navy. But years of training at the academy in Sunthrone City failed to teach him to harness his wind magic. He needs to find the right conditions, and people, who can teach him about the full potential of his power.
K.N. Salsutro has built a fresh and dazzling fantasy novel with The Roar of the Lost Horizon (Nova Dragon Studios, LLC) that explores themes of identity, family, autonomy and perseverance.
Dreams of Service to the Empire
Nate Lowwind, is one of the numerous Skilled weather workers that live in the Solkyrian empire. While Nate’s siblings earned their titles and intricate tattoos signifying their high skill level, Nate’s failure to even blow out a candle with his power earned him the nickname “Nate Nowind”.
The people graced with magical abilities are highly valued by the empire, whether they are wind workers, tide workers, or those who can speak with animals, among others. Nate’s failure to perfect his Skill has led to shame and debt for himself and his family.
This epic story sets sail when Nate fails his final assessment and must report to a claustrophobic life of work in the mines. But, a detour leads him face to face with his future, allowing him to imagine a life for himself that he didn’t think was possible. He has to let go of his dreams of sailing for the imperial navy and join a tempting band of pirates who promise him a better future.
Breaking Free and Finding Self-Worth
Finally free from the confines of Solkyria, Nate is out on the open sea under the watchful eye of Captain Arani, who has other plans for him. She has been searching for someone like Nate for a long time, to help her track something from an age-old legend. With training curated towards Nate’s ability to sense the wind, rather than control it, Captain Arani is prepared to steer her crew on the adventure of a lifetime.
As Nate learns to hone his Skill, he realizes that his potential goes beyond anything the empire could have ever dreamed for him. The crew is filled with other Skilled pirates who left Solkyria for similar reasons and quickly realized that they are worth more than the empire’s labels. Rori, a secretive and attractive Goodtide who refuses to use her Skill to influence the tides, shares her wisdom with Nate: “You can be something other than what that tattoo says you need to be.”
The Roar of the Lost Horizon is more than a brilliant, lively and carefully plotted novel. It is a story about rising above external pressure and finding value in yourself. We slowly see Nate gain confidence, growing away from the young man who wasn’t able to do the one thing his society expected from him.
Nate has a strong sense of self and is steadfast in his initial loyalty to the empire. His worst fear is being seen as worthless and proving everyone right who ever called him “Nowind”. But because the empire expects so little from someone they’ve labeled a Lowwind, Nate has room to go above and beyond in discovering his capacity for greatness. As he learns about the people around him, his confidence in the empire wavers, and he is able to see his own value more clearly.
An Epic and Captivating Fantasy Pirate Novel
K.N. Salustro has crafted an extraordinary universe brimming with magic, pirates and seafaring. Her worldbuilding is careful and original, turning the tide on the classic trope of element bending by making it all her own. I was hooked from the very first chapter, with a compelling but digestible premise that is well-paced and keeps the reader in anticipation.
With a varied crew of misfit characters, Salustro gives readers a taste of the diversity of this world, not only in skill and ability but also in personality and cultural background. She artfully steers this novel with the help of two powerful leads at the helm, taking the reader on a rousing journey.
Each new location is described in vivid detail, aided by a genre-classic map included in the opening pages. This novel would translate well to an epic film or television series, as each scene had a cinematic quality that let me easily picture myself aboard the ship alongside Nate and the band of pirates.
I eagerly await A Whisper from the Edge of the World, the next addition to the beautifully written Southern Echo series. As Captain Iris Arani says about her ship, “the beautiful thing about an echo is that it always comes back.”
About K.N. Salustro
K.N. Salustro is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author who loves outer space, dragons, and stories that include at least one of those things. When not writing or working at her day job, she runs an Etsy shop as a plush maker and makes art for her Redbubble shop, both under the name DragonsByKris. (She is serious about being a dragon fan.)
Her science fiction trilogy The Star Hunters was nominated for the Cygnus Awards, with each book in the trilogy receiving its own accolades. Chasing Shadows, the first book in the trilogy and K.N. Salustro’s debut novel, was a quarter-finalist in the 2018 Screencraft Cinematic Book Contest, and won a silver medal in the 2019 Readers Favorite book awards. Light Runner (the third book of the series) received an honorable mention in the Global eBook Awards. Her first fantasy novel, Cause of Death: ??? won the Fantasy category in the Indie Reader Discovery Awards, and was chosen as a winner in the 2021 Page Turner Awards.
K.N. Salustro is hard at work on her next novel and will be writing some proper dragons into her books for a bit.
