Lucy Hounsom Books In Order

Publication Order of The Worldmaker Trilogy Books

Lucy Hounsom
Lucy Hounsom is a writer living in southwest England on the red shores of the Jurassic Coast. It is a beautiful and mysterious part of the country, steeped in myth and folklore. And so surprisingly, it is a perfect spot to make stories up in.

Like most writers, she has been making stories up for quite a long time. Despite attending theater school for six years, books were always her first love. Her parents read to them a bunch while they were kids, she guesses it was their fault that Lucy and her sister both ended up becoming authors.

Lucy has a BA Hons in English & Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing, both from the University of London. She also works for Waterstones Booksellers and co-host the award winning intersectional feminist podcast, “Breaking the Glass Slipper”, which won Best Audio in the 2019 British Fantasy Awards.

She loves cultivating a personal (and highly impractical) bedroom library, taking long walks in the surf, and playing the piano.

Lucy is also the writer of “Sistersong”, a New York Times bestselling novel, and is a reimagining of “The Twa Sisters”, the folk ballad. She published this under the name Lucy Holland.

“Starborn” is the first novel in the “Worldmaker Trilogy” series and was released in 2015. Death and destruction are going to bar her way.

Kyndra’s fate holds salvation, however the journey begins in her tiny village. The day she comes of age, she accidentally disrupts this ancient ceremony, which ends centuries of tradition. So when this unnatural storm targets her rather superstitious community, Kyndra gets blamed for it. She fears for her life until these two strangers save her, by using some powers that have not been seen for an age and are powers fueled by the moon and the sun.

Together, they flee to Naris, the hidden citadel. Kyndra experiences some disturbing visions from the past here, showing war and one man’s horrifying response. She is going to learn a lot more in the city’s subterranean chambers, among all the rebels and fanatics. However Kyndra’s first going to get tested brutally in a bid to unlock her own magic.

Should she survive this ordeal, she is going to discover a force much greater than anything she could have ever imagined. However could it create as well as destroy? And can she control it, in order to right one ancient wrong?

Shortlisted for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut in the year 2016.

Hounsom’s use of her characters is rather unique. There’s this inscrutable quality to them in certain places which makes the reader sorta unsure what could happen next in the story. Some of this comes from how she uses her peripheral cast, dwelling just long enough on some of them to make you start thinking they’ll play a larger role than they actually do, whilst the motivations of the others remain concealed from the reader so they wind up popping up back at intervals when they’re least expecting to.

“Heartland” is the second novel in the “Worldmaker Trilogy” series and was released in 2016. She came so that she could protect a people, however she really needs to protect a world.

Kyndra has damned and saved the people of Mariar. Her star-born powers helped heal a land in turmoil, however it also destroyed this ancient magic, one which hid them from invaders. Now Kyndra has to go into enemy territory in order to secure some kind of peace.

She finds the Sartyan Empire, which is just as unstable but just as warlike as it ever was. It is plagued by dissident factions, but its emperor still has got the strength to crush her homeland like its nothing. The Khronostians, assassins able to dance through time, could help her out; or they may just be her undoing. And deep within the desert, Char Lesko struggles with controlling his own still emerging powers. He has been raised by a mercenary whose own secrets could potentially change everything, including both the past and the future.

However when Char and Kyndra meet, are their goals going to align? Kyndra has to harness the full glory of the stars, while Char must channel his rage, or two whole continents are going to be lost.

This is a beautifully layered and intricate world that Lucy’s created is really second to none, it’s a gorgeous descriptive immersive sense of where the characters truly breathe and live. There is magic on the page, with some well defined, intriguing, and (at times) often emotive characters who are vibrant and truly real in the moment. This is an addictive and wonderful reading experience.

Lucy delivers a novel that is rich in language, deeply felt emotional resonance, and heart stopping action; it’s fantasy at its very best, both creatively dazzling and unique in its storytelling.

“Firestorm” is the third novel in the “Worldmaker Trilogy” series and was released in 2017. In order to protect her future, Kyndra’s got to defend her past.

Kyndra’s finally mastered her cold Starborn powers, however could it be too late? A faction of hitmen, able to manipulate time, plan to write Acre’s history. These Khronostians are going to ensure the Sartyan Empire never got founded. And in this new narrative, Kyndra was never even born.

With Char (her ally), and the rogue Khronostian Ma, she resolves to enlist the aid of the dragons, who got banished long ago. They have to find them first, however together they could generate a vast amount of power. It could propel her backward in time, in order to avert the ending of an era. But Kyndra’s going to be heading toward a horrible confrontation, one which has shaped and will shape the future of her whole world.

Getting to watch Kyndra adapt, change, and fight her abilities, oftentimes with the whole weight of the world on her shoulders has been one of this series’ greatest strengths. Along with the other cast members surrounding her being full of depth, because Lucy’s relationship building is just as strong as the world building in this is.