The book doesn’t hit shelves until next year, but Johansen graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and according to reports, she got a seven-figure book deal and was moved by POTUS:
The 35-year-old Johansen says she heard then-Sen. Obama give a speech in 2007 and was inspired to create the series’ idealistic heroine, 19-year-old Kelsea Glynn. The publisher is billing the books as a female version of George R.R. Martin’s “Game of Thrones.”
More on the plot:
Set three centuries after a small portion of the human race has populated a landmass that mysteriously emerged in the wake of an environmental catastrophe, the series follows nineteen-year-old princess Kelsea Glynn, who must reclaim her deceased mother’s throne and redeem her kingdom, the Tearling, from forces of corruption and dark magic of The Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of the neighboring country, Mortmesne. According to [editor Maya Ziv], “Erika’s masterful storytelling, combined with her ability to transport the reader to another fully-realized world, makes her an exciting new talent.”
Sounds kind of Hunger Games meets Snow White and the Huntsman via Westeros. Questions we need answers to ASAP: Will there be dragons? Will there be people of color? Will the costumes be lust-worthy?
[Variety, MTV, HuffPo, Harper Collins, GoodReads]
Image via Getty.
