The Sound and the Echoes - Middle Grade & YA Fantasy Novel Book Promotion by Dew Pellucid
Talking pets, see-through people, and a glistening winter wonderland… and that's just the beginning.
In a secret land our Echoes live, reflections of us who are just a little see-through and icy to the touch. A terrible law darkness the lives of these people: When a Sound in our realm dies, his Echo is put to death in theirs.
Ironically, it is a Sound here among us that is now hunted as a result of this law. For when he dies, his Echo the Prince will be put to death.
And so twelve-year-old, Will Cleary, is swept into a sparkling icy kingdom to hide at the Orphanage of Castaway Children until he can solve the riddle of The Lake of Eternal Ice and save the Echoes and his own family.
Many readers have compared the novel to Harry Potter. Here's a handful of reviews, and what the author had to say about them:
"A story decked in philosophical goodness," one reviewer said recently of The Sound and the Echoes. I was amazed. Yes, the story began one sleepless night with me pondering Plato's Realm of the Forms. But that was six years ago. Then came years of world-building. Could the foundations still show?
"The story shares a number of similarities with the Harry Potter series," said the prestigious Kirkus Reviews. "But the unique, complex Echo world is enough to set this story apart... A fantasy novel that readers hungry for magic and adventure will gladly devour." I agonized over this review for a day and a half. Yes, it's wonderful to be compared to J.K. Rowling. But who wants to be a copycat? And, in truth, I was inspired by Harry Potter; these wonderful stories played such a big part in my son's life. But I set out to create a different hero, philosophically speaking. Some readers are picking that up, like Delaine who wrote on Goodreads about the comparisons to Harry Potter: "Sounds and the Echoes has its own identity. It has a different mission."
" 'The Sound & The Echoes' is a riveting pick for middle grade and young adult fans of high adventure, recommended," said The Midwest Book Review. That review blew me away. It arrived at my door in an envelope addressed to Dew Pellucid (my pen name). I never dreamed my book would be picked for review, let alone recommended to libraries. But there it was! And the wonderfully odd thing was that I had especially published the book in paperback to open more doors for it. And the catalyst was the fact that The Midwest Book Review will not review eBooks.
More reviews of The Sound and the Echoes have seen appeared on Goodreads, Amazon and various book blogs. I cherish everyone. But I have a few favorites. Like the Kindle Kids Corner 5-star review by a fourth grader. "This was my first time reading a story that was magical," he said. "I really liked it... Will [the hero] reminded me of someone real. Someone who doesn't give up on family." This eloquent boy read the novel in 2 days!
And then there are those special reviewers who seem to like what I like (that surely is the basis for a beautiful friendship). Fellow author, Mary Fan, said, "Pellucid has created something truly magical, with descriptions that will carry you into this frozen fantasyland and make you never want to leave." Ah! The creation of the Echo realm was the best part of writing… A see-through realm, with everything showing through everything else in a mesmerizing kaleidoscope of colors and glittering shapes. "An imaginative, strange, beautiful world," said Sean Randall, a Goodreads Librarian. Thank you, Sean. The Echo realm didn't start out like that. In fact, at first it was fairly dull and ordinary. But the input of Katie Kotchman, a Literary Agent at Don Congdon Associates, set me on the glistening track to a winter wonderland.
All in all, the best part of getting published is reading reviews! If you'd like to read more snippets, check out the book's blog.