Five lives. One prophecy. A storm they cannot escape.
The Dark of Dyana is an epic fantasy rooted in African spirituality, where dreams, love and prophecy collide in a world shaped by forces its characters barely understand.
Told through five distinct points of view, the novel follows seemingly separate journeys that gradually converge around the mysterious events in Haiva Above and the trial of Aec Vern. Woven throughout the story are the testimonies of Varion and Aec Vern, eventually recorded by the djohun, a scribe tasked with transcribing their trial. These testimonies provide a compelling thread connecting the novel’s multiple perspectives and revealing how each character is drawn inexorably toward the same unfolding catastrophe.
At the heart of the story is the hantsi, a force whose implications some characters understand while others remain unaware of the role they are destined to play. As their paths converge, prophecy becomes something more complicated than fate: it can be fulfilled precisely by being subverted.
Drawing deeply on African spirituality while embracing the imaginative freedom of speculative fiction, The Dark of Dyana is an exploration of dreaming, love, destiny and the strange, sometimes tragic humour of trying to escape what has already been foretold.
The first novel in an ambitious fantasy trilogy.
Word Count: 100.000
Proposition: Fans of epic fantasy titles like A Song Of Ice and Fire, Black Leopard Red Wolf, The King Killer Chronicles
Author: Shanice Ndlovu