Sandrine Alexie
La grotte au dragon
La Rose de Djam
Commander

Sandrine Alexie, Le Pôle du Monde (The Pole of The World)

“Imagine that you find the chalice. Once you have the Rose of Djam, would you be tempted to use it?

- Uh... You mean to look inside?

- Of course! Not to drink a Syrian cru!

She suddenly had the impression that forty spirits were probing her.

Yokhannân insisted:

"Well? If you could access all the secrets of the universe at a glance, wouldn't you succumb?

- I don't think so," said Sibylle, throwing back a lock off her forehead and returning his gaze. I'm not sure they're all pleasant to look at.”

The story takes place in 1186 of the Christian era. The Frankish lands – Jerusalem, Tripoli and Antioch – are in their last throes of existence, under attack by Saladin, who reigns over Cairo and Muslim Syria. Muslims and Christians are fighting over holy places in Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan.

Another battle is raging to defend a power that is not quite of this world, but is the bedrock and protector of its equilibrium: the “Pole of the World”. It fades over time and is born again in various forms, eras and places. For the Muslims, it is a prophet they call Khidr, the “Green One”; for the Christians, it is Saint George and sometimes Elias, like the Jews. However, its face is known only to the Seven Horsemen, its most faithful servants, recruited from the Forty Saints of the World.

As an episode in the long history of the Forty Saints of the World, “The Rose of Djam" trilogy recounts the quest of Sybille de Terra Nuova, a young woman whom they entrusted with the task of finding and bringing back the Cup of Djam, the chalice containing all the secrets of the universe.

 

Press

“In the line of Lian Hearn's "Clan of the Otori" and the Roman de Baïbar, a medieval Arabic narrative cycle, "The Rose of Djam" draws from the magical world of the medieval East. Herein, Sandrine Alexie renews the sources of inspiration for heroic fantasy. A breath of fresh air in a genre that is very attached to the aesthetics of J. R. R. Tolkien.”

Élisa Thévenet, Le Monde

Sarah Delle
Illustrator
Serie
La Rose de Djam
Book
2
Parution
August 22, 2019
Pages
352
Type
Grand format
Price
22,50 €
Isbn13
9791036000188
Size
14,5 x 20 cm

Digital reading copy