Amazon Kuki Book One Home Page Authorhouse Category:  Fantasy Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN-10:  1496981030 Type: Fiction Pages: 88 Copyright: July 1, 2014 ISBN-13: 9781496981035 A tale of gods, curses, betrayal, and war. 'At bounds of seeming hope they played Flouting truths of chance and fate With faith in gods and kin If not untimely cords of chance And tenacious beams of fate They’d have their stoke of luck But not so for the Kutri of Kuki Though they loved the gods enough Yet in dying hands they fell'. Book one is a tale set in the altered world following the war of the gods. Life cycled on for ages, burying the ancient tales beneath mounds of time. Dependence and submission to the gods had become a religion of sort, and the end was far from their thoughts. Kutri’s gods had been passively idle for ages, but now she was fully ripe for the fulfillment of prophecies. As time weaved its way through the paths of destiny, Kutri struggled to resist her fate. This time it was too late; the gods were out to play. Soon an epic battle emerged, kingdom marching out against kingdom. This is the story of how they fell.    Excerpt The battle in the feast room was fierce and quick. All the rage and venom of strife was compressed into one moment of doom. Zaali was a king who had bled in battle. The taste of war was no stranger to him. He sat in the same spot he had been and continued eating from the feast table. The huge entrance doors were flaking off as heavy blows landed on them from outside. It was needless they break any more, for Kuki was no more. The doors that sheltered had prevented help from danger. His lifeless body lay on the floor. Royal blood mingled with Ulmi and flowed toward the door. Zaali’s sword had clotted blood on it. A Kulan soldier tightened a string firmly around his left arm. “I wish I could let it flow,” he said. “I want to bleed as much as I have shed. There is no royal blood. We are all red.” He had taken his royal adornments off after the battle. A sly smile stretched across his lips as he remembered the words of Ayul; “You shall not draw the king’s blood with a used blade.” Kuki was not honored in death. By the time it was his turn, his royal apparel was already spattered in red. He had watched helplessly as men did what they must do. He did not plead for life. He looked up as Zaali pushed the stained sword into his chest, ripping the pump of his blood. Royal blood spouted as Zaali withdrew the blade and stepped back. Looking up and deep into the eyes of Zaali, Kuki said his last words with a stare. Zaali staggered as he stepped away; helplessly hearing the words of Kuki’s stare, and a Kulan’s firm hand steadied him from behind. Slowly, Kuki yielded into a bow as he fought his will to surrender. The golden crown rolled away as his head hit the floor; his eyes kept staring, but now at Zaali’s feet. Tears flowed across the bridge of his nose. His eyes blinked slowly in reflex as blood dropped from the table above into the pool near his head. Gradually the bang on the doors faded as he slipped away into Oren. Suddenly, his eyes no longer blinked, even though the Ulmi’s blood kept dropping.

Kuki Book One - The End
"Wonderful!" Lumix is an excellent storyteller. I found his writing style refreshing and very powerful. It is in some ways quite old-fashioned, evoking images and remembrances of Homer’s Odyssey. The manuscript is more of an epic poem than a short story, as the style is very poetic, requiring the reader to interpret the words into images their in own way. I imagine that everyone who reads this book will see things in a different way and interpret their own images and meanings from the very well written text. Mark Hooper