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The Kota Series #3
Pharmakon
We only get a few second chances…
In Phantasya’s supernatural paradise, the Warriors and their friends hope to rest for a while. Soon, however, trials and revelations arise for each Kota Warrior. Rave and Arctos travel back to Ebon to finish a mission they thought was over, this time with a shocking ally. Amu, struggling to find her place again, teleports to Rowen and discovers a secret hidden since Earth. Left on Phantasya, Kynacoba and Galcon fight a devilish enemy who could lead the natives into horrific rebellion against their Guardian.
Meanwhile, the isolation of Trok’s immortality begins to take its toll. Knowing how this future ends, he must do what’s best for everyone involved. But Phantasya is a world fated to test man’s faith, and the Phantasyans aren’t the only ones plagued by doubt.
How do you best fight a losing battle? The more the Warriors discover, the trickier their choices become.
In Phantasya’s supernatural paradise, the Warriors and their friends hope to rest for a while. Soon, however, trials and revelations arise for each Kota Warrior. Rave and Arctos travel back to Ebon to finish a mission they thought was over, this time with a shocking ally. Amu, struggling to find her place again, teleports to Rowen and discovers a secret hidden since Earth. Left on Phantasya, Kynacoba and Galcon fight a devilish enemy who could lead the natives into horrific rebellion against their Guardian.
Meanwhile, the isolation of Trok’s immortality begins to take its toll. Knowing how this future ends, he must do what’s best for everyone involved. But Phantasya is a world fated to test man’s faith, and the Phantasyans aren’t the only ones plagued by doubt.
How do you best fight a losing battle? The more the Warriors discover, the trickier their choices become.
398 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
22 people want to read
About the author
Sunshine Somerville
16 books111 followersSunshine Somerville is a Science Fantasy author who loves blending genres. She has a degree in English Literature and self-published her first book at the ripe old age of nine. She currently lives on the beachy side of Michigan with her husband, daughters, and rescued dogs.
The Kota Series is a Science Fantasy epic based on youthful obsessions with X-Men, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dark Angel, and A Wrinkle in Time.
The Alt-World Chronicles is an Urban Fantasy series inspired by weird recurring dreams, a brainstorming session in the shower, and one ridiculously hot summer lived in Kansas City.
A Fairly Fairy Tale is Sunshine’s first Middle Grade Fantasy book. She got the idea from her family’s crest, which portrays a dragon shooting flames from both ends, and from a niece whose second favorite word is farts.
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TIKTOK
The Kota Series is a Science Fantasy epic based on youthful obsessions with X-Men, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dark Angel, and A Wrinkle in Time.
The Alt-World Chronicles is an Urban Fantasy series inspired by weird recurring dreams, a brainstorming session in the shower, and one ridiculously hot summer lived in Kansas City.
A Fairly Fairy Tale is Sunshine’s first Middle Grade Fantasy book. She got the idea from her family’s crest, which portrays a dragon shooting flames from both ends, and from a niece whose second favorite word is farts.
TIKTOK
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 19, 2015
Review from Amazon.com:
Pharmakon opens with an explanation for how time travel works in the Kota series, including insight into the relationship between time and space. It's relentless clever and something completely new, and that's exactly what Somerville continues to deliver three books into the series. It's a giddy rush to find a new take on a genre trope, and if you've been following the series up to this point it's a game-changing reveal. It's the "We have to move the Island" moment.
One of the great strengths of the series is the way Somerville knows this world and its inhabitants so well. In the third book, the setting changes drastically once again, but everything we've seen makes sense with what came before. It's sprawling but consistent - we can go all over this universe, but everything we've seen belongs in the same universe. The way it fits together only gives the ongoing story more power.
And yet, Pharmakon has its own identity beyond its role in bringing the overall story toward its conclusion. Somerville has always excelled at combining action, character moments, and world-building, and this mix is only getting better with each new entry. There's an impressive hook to Pharmakon that reveals itself early on - it's a complicated idea that comes across so clearly. I'd rather not spoil it, but once it happened, I worried that it wouldn't be logically sustainable or just cause the narrative to fold in on itself, but that's absolutely not the case. I can't even imagine the work it took to have it all make sense, but everything comes together beautifully.
I've been so impressed with the way the Kota series features characters who, at their introduction, could have been stock sci-fi characters. Trok, for example, fits a very particular archetype and that could have turned into a shorthand that replaced character development. But every single time there's a smart twist or a surprising insight that leaves them miles away from what you assumed. I was a Trok fan going into Pharmakon and it was so exciting to find out so much more about his character and learn that my assumptions were a mile off.
Pharmakon, like the previous entries in the series, is a parade of new ideas and fully realized characters. It's smart, fun, involving, and maybe most important, it's new. Whenever it starts to feel like something you've seen before, there's a swerve you'll never see coming that changes everything. Three books in and Somerville and her Warriors are still full of surprises.
Pharmakon opens with an explanation for how time travel works in the Kota series, including insight into the relationship between time and space. It's relentless clever and something completely new, and that's exactly what Somerville continues to deliver three books into the series. It's a giddy rush to find a new take on a genre trope, and if you've been following the series up to this point it's a game-changing reveal. It's the "We have to move the Island" moment.
One of the great strengths of the series is the way Somerville knows this world and its inhabitants so well. In the third book, the setting changes drastically once again, but everything we've seen makes sense with what came before. It's sprawling but consistent - we can go all over this universe, but everything we've seen belongs in the same universe. The way it fits together only gives the ongoing story more power.
And yet, Pharmakon has its own identity beyond its role in bringing the overall story toward its conclusion. Somerville has always excelled at combining action, character moments, and world-building, and this mix is only getting better with each new entry. There's an impressive hook to Pharmakon that reveals itself early on - it's a complicated idea that comes across so clearly. I'd rather not spoil it, but once it happened, I worried that it wouldn't be logically sustainable or just cause the narrative to fold in on itself, but that's absolutely not the case. I can't even imagine the work it took to have it all make sense, but everything comes together beautifully.
I've been so impressed with the way the Kota series features characters who, at their introduction, could have been stock sci-fi characters. Trok, for example, fits a very particular archetype and that could have turned into a shorthand that replaced character development. But every single time there's a smart twist or a surprising insight that leaves them miles away from what you assumed. I was a Trok fan going into Pharmakon and it was so exciting to find out so much more about his character and learn that my assumptions were a mile off.
Pharmakon, like the previous entries in the series, is a parade of new ideas and fully realized characters. It's smart, fun, involving, and maybe most important, it's new. Whenever it starts to feel like something you've seen before, there's a swerve you'll never see coming that changes everything. Three books in and Somerville and her Warriors are still full of surprises.
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