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STELLA ATRIUM
SPECULATIVE FICTION WRITER
STELLA ATRIUM
SPECULATIVE FICTION WRITER
Utcan’s Talisman
BOOK Five OF THE TRIBAL WARS
Bybiis el Putuki and her friend Opin the healer must navigate the demands of the khalif in Utica who would turn Opin’s gift to serve him. Jesse Hartley and Hershel Henry find each other, but each is very changed from recent events. Can they reawaken the currents of feeling between them?
When Bybiis is able to force a release from the khalif’s control, she and Opin land at a small fishing village from where Mrs. Shaw is exploring the ruins of a lost city. Jesse Hartley joins them, but the conflicts that grew in Utica get more intense. Jesse is distracted when Hershel Henry invites her to rejoin her father the Consortium General at the rainbow bridge construction site.
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Praise for Utcan’s Talisman
Atrium skillfully intertwines themes of identity, belonging, and the pursuit of knowledge as Bybiis navigates her place in the world and uncovers hidden truths. … The novel’s exploration of the tension between tradition and progress is both thought-provoking and relevant, offering insights that resonate with contemporary issues.
Readers immediately find themselves in Utica, a port city smelling of “fish and hemp and wet wood,” as scholar-and-sorceress Bybiis carefully observes how this society produces and powers its magic. … In each section, the reader tags along with a sharp-eyed outsider—an anthropologist, a journalist, a politician—as they navigate a startling, beautiful, thoughtfully constructed society.
Ambassadors, politicians, capitalists, and journalists all know each other from years of working together (and against one another). Although they have individual lives and stories, even the exit or death of a specific person does little to disrupt the grander flow of long-term designs shaped by partially submerged power structures. In this sense, the story of UTCAN’S TALISMAN is not only complex but very real.
From Stella Atrium on Utcan's Talisman
Bybiis the scholar is the narrator of two sections of the book (with five sections). Bybiis had no tutor or role model for how to develop her paranormal gifts. Trial and error can be painful and doesn’t expand her potential, plus she’s resentful to others.
This theme resonates with isolated gifted persons -- like artists or athletes -- who are not in step with siblings or school friends, and who must leave the family situation to explore a higher calling. The struggle is extra difficult for a woman with no family and discounted by the powers-that-be.
One inspiration was from Gene Wolfe’s Executioner series where the protagonist was an executioner! The reader saw him as a whole person with flaws and hopes and setbacks and betraying his friends even.
The twist I added is that Bybiis is female and not able to trade on her looks. Male readers often read past the story action for the women, waiting for a hero to make his entrance. Only Bybiis can save Bybiis.
