Soulfellows

by David Randall

Judith Newcomb grows up in New Albia, in the frontier town of Fawnvale. The New Albians practice magic; some of the Sipangs beyond the frontier are shapeshifters. When Judith is fourteen, Albia and Nestria go to war. A Sipang raid kills all of Judith’s family, and she and her sister Elizabeth are taken as prisoners—slaves—by the Sipangs. Judith is about to be chosen as the personal slave of a Sipang called the Devil when she asks Okwaho, the wolf-shapeshifter who slew her father, to save her. He kills the Devil, and takes Judith back as his slave to his native village, beyond the mountains.Then Judith becomes a shapeshifter herself ...

395 pages, Paperback

Published October 5, 2020

About the author

the link above has some more information

While still a graduate student, David Randall wrote Clovermead: In the Shadow of the Bear, a fantasy adventure novel. The story tells of Clovermead Wickward, a twelve-year-old tomboy, as she attempts to assist the innkeeper Waxmelt, a man who has raised her as if she were his own daughter. Clovermead's journey leads her into a battle between good and evil that allows her to see past society's many deceptions and find her own place in the adult world.

Jennifer Mattson, in a review of Clovermead for Booklist, commented on Randall's decision to add a dark side to his young heroine's personality, noting that it "puts an intriguing spin on the otherwise archetypal fantasy plot." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Clovermead "vivacious, loquacious, precocious," and "a delightful heroine," while in School Library Journal, Jane G. Conner deemed the novel "a challenging high fantasy for those who can keep straight many details and forces, and who don't mind a good bit of violence." Dubbing Randall "a writer to watch," a Publishers Weekly contributor concluded that Clovermead will attract "fantasy buffs" due to its "fast-paced plotting and the turn of events at the end."

In discussing his novel and its influences, Randall explained: "Clovermead looks with admiration to L.N. Montgomery, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula K. LeGuin, C.S. Lewis, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. Unlike my heroine, I am not twelve years old, blonde, or female, but I have been known to fence, and I am told we talk alike."

(an interview with David Randall http://mistysmess.blogspot.com/2010/0...)