In the time before the Dark Years, Princess Liniel Atlanta travelled in distant lands but cherished above all Almaris, legendary city of beauty and song. Four hundred years later, her namesake Princess Atlanta longs for such adventures, but the golden era of Liniel has passed and few travel beyond the southern lands. The city of Almaris has been destroyed in the old wars, its glories now remembered only in the laments of the Gypsies, the survivors, descendants of those who did not sail away in search of a more peaceful world.
Rejecting an arranged marriage and the sheltered life at court, Princess Atlanta sets out to follow her dream of adventure. She befriends the Gypsy Orrin and together they travel north, where she finds a world beset by portents, on the brink of chaos. There are rumours of the return of Vindmar the Warlord and armies again gather on the battle-plains of the vast Argolian desert.
As the truth about Liniel and the Gypsies unfolds, Princess Atlanta must decide her own destiny when nothing is as she imagined it to be.
Published in 2001 by the University of Queensland Press, A Journey to Distant Mountains enchanted a generation of readers. I’ve had emails and messages from people who borrowed it from their school library and still remember it fondly. This means a lot to me as a writer.
Original paperback copies are now available from By the Book. Each copy has been personally checked by the author for spiders after sitting for two decades in cardboard box in a garage. Unless UQP has a stash tucked away, these are the very last first-edition copies.
One day I’ll relaunch Journey as an epub and a print on demand paperback, along with the unpublished sequel, which has a ghostly presence on the internet as The Last Ship. My editor at the time suggested a trilogy, and I still have all my notes for book three. For updates, subscribe to my newsletter or check back here.