#his names Kierlan

[moss-flesh]

my new half elf bard babygirl………. women have consumed me again n again

[moonlightreal]

The Night World’s end of the world

A bit of pondering, with bonus picture of Sarah Strange.

The setup: animal attacks, natural disasters and strange diseases are on the rise! The end of the world is coming! Most of the Night World thinks it’ll be the end of the human world and they will be free to live their best vampire- and shapeshifter-lives, enslaving humans to feed from like they did back in prehistory. But Circle Daybreak is not down for mass human destruction and wants to try and stop what’s coming. Luckily there is a prophecy! There are four “Wild Powers,” four people with a special gift-- blue fire! Very cool. If they all work together they can stop the darkness. Circle Daybreak has a guide to help find them:

One from the land of kings long forgotten;

One from the hearth which still holds the spark;

One from the Day World where two eyes are watching;

One from the twilight to be one with the dark.

The first three we found in the books that have been published. A vampire prince, a ditzy but soulful lost witch, and a vampire hunter who is herself half vampire. The three of them are from the “royal families” of the Night World, the vampire Redferns and the witchy Harmans.

Information from Strange Fate indicates that the fourth Wild Power is Kierlan Drache, from the “royal family” of the shapeshifters. His family name is linked to some very cool new shapeshifter lore that Ms. Smith added for the last four books. The Drache family are dragonborn, before Skyrim or Game of Thrones did it.

In ancient times the dragons were the most powerful and cruel of shapeshifters, ruling whole kingdoms and keeping humans as cattle. Ms. Smith’s dragons seem to be totally evil, drawing on all the darkest ancient serpent mythology. Being shapeshifters, they can be dragon or human, and have the unique power to take on any human or animal form they wish. Ordinary shapeshuifters are limited to one human form and one animal form, the descendants of the dragons are able to choose their animal form while true dragons can shapeshift into any animal or human.

The true dragons are the villains in the end of the world arc, rising from centuries of slumber to bring about the end of the world. Exactly how this will happen is a bit murky; despite the disasters Jez hears about in Huntress, by Witchlight the human world still seems to be puttering along with high school continuing as usual.

This made me wonder: was this “end of the world” arc Ms. Smith’s idea? Or did the publisher decide the series needed a dramatic wrapup? Because Ms. Smith doesn’t seem super invested in the apocalyptic worldbuilding of it all. She had great fun writing the post-apocalypse story that was originally part of Strange Fate then split off to become the standalone novel The Last Lullaby, and I know this because she told me. :-) I emailed her to say “post-apocalyptic is fun to write isn’t it?” and she sent a brief “it sure is!” reply. My only actual conversation with the woman of mystery. But she seems much less into the apocalyptic event itself. This is what made me wonder if Ms. Smith wasn’t the decider in the whole end of the world thing and just wanted to keep writing her supernatural high school stories.

Thinking about the spread of Wild Powers it occurs to me that we have an uneven spread. Witches, vampires and shapeshifters are represented, but humans only get a half-inclusion.

So… is Kierlan a confirmed Wild Power or just a likely Wild Power? ‘Cause Circle Daybreak agents tracked down Iliana through her ancestry long before she could use the blue fire. What I’m saying is, I wonder if Kierlan is a ringer and Sarah will turn out to be the real Wild Power.

On that subject, we have a picture of Sarah, made by Ms. Smith on a dollmaker. (Wherever you are now, Ms. Smith, I hope you’re having loads of fun making all your characters with AI art because it is a blast.)

I’ll have to paraphrase the description since I couldn’t find it again but in my memory Ms. Smith waxes eloquent about how Sarah “May be a bit clumsy and a bit of a crybaby…” which, uh, reminds me of somebody.

And Ms. Smith goes on to talk about Sarah’s bluegreen eyes, shimmering as if with unshed tears, as her most beautiful feature.

[ljsmiths-thenightworld]

The Night World Series and all things L.J. Smith

The Night World series is by 90’s Teen Vampire Writing Queen , L.J. Smith. She is also the original writer of The Vampires Diaries series and her name is still attached to the ghost written books of today.

This particular series contains 9 books with a 10th book named Strange Fate to be released at a N/A date.

Books 1-9 were written in the 1990’s with Strange Fate originally meant to be released in 1999.

If it’s been so long why do you still have a strand of faith?

It’s more hope, but honestly what’s the harm in running an update blog in the chance it ever happens?

In 2008, the books were republished at the beginning of a new Vampire craze. The Vampire Diaries tv show was announced and L.J. Smith ended her hiatus that started in 1999 (due to her caring for sick relatives).

In an interview in 2012, LJ Smith was “halfway” done with Strange Fate in the quote below:

“Out of all the Night World? To be honest, my favorite is one that you haven’t seen yet, because he’s in Strange Fate (670 pages so far and still only halfway done). His name is Kierlan, he’s a wild and crazy guy, and—to say more would be to give the plot away. BUT soon, when Night World 3 comes out (in April I think) you can see him for yourself, because the teaser in the back is from Strange Fate and it’s all about him—and Sarah, the heroine.”

Later she realized that the story had evolved so much that it was basically a completely different story, which she named The Last Lullaby. She took the chapters that became their own and wrote a different ending for it. She planned to publish that book in 2014, but for some reason this didn’t happen either. It seems some of this was published online but it doesn’t look like it was by Smith herself.

During 2011 at the height of Vampire Diaries fame, and after being essentially asked to write more books to extend the series, Smith was actually fired from her books and a ghost writer was hired. She however did not lose the rights to every book of hers, and can still legally finish The Night World. I don’t know if this caused another shift in her focus, but she did write her own additional books and then swapped her focus to her own “fanfiction” verisons of the books. Which while originally able to be purchased on Amazon, is not gone. However links to Paradise Lost and The War of Roses still exist online. The books pick up where Midnight (the last book in the series written by her) take place.

Around 2016, L.J. Smith popped back up, once again active and informed her readers she almost died on a facebook post that can be found here. She really had mostly remained inactive, save the very occasional and unrelated post on facebook that stopped in 2018.

What are The Night World books about?

The Night World series is about a modern world where witches, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters love secretly along side mortals. The Night World has twos in rules which are 1. Do not allow humans to find out about the Night World and 2. Night World members are forbidden from falling in love with a human. Something in recent times has shifted though, causing members of the night world more frequently to find soulmates in humans. Each book gives us a Night World member and a human couple who fall in love in with varying reaction to it (some are more open to human love interests than others, some even are well known human haters). Aside from this, another interesting idea in the book (that differs from even other LJ Smith vampire books) is the idea of both made and born vampires. The born vampires, called Lamia, are just that. They can eat food and age, until they decide not to. Made vampires are pretty stereotypical vampires, with the added detail that only youthful people can survive the change therefore making all made vampires appear to be around teen age.

Why do I care so much still?

The Night World series has definitely aged but the ideas and stories are so dear to me to this day. I really would love to encourage a focus on the series and let LJ know fans are still to this day looking forward to her finishing, but that we also wish her and her health well! I hope this blog points people towards one of my favorite fictional worlds.

[moonlightreal]

Another Strange Fate preview

Strange Fate sneak preview in the third omnibus edition, April 2009

The girl was Kierlan’s soulmate. There was no doubt of that now, just as there’d been no doubt since they were children.

Kierlan should have, by everything her knew of the Night World’s laws, been comforted by this. He should have felt unassailable.

Instead, he felt very assailable indeed.

But why? They’d woven the eternal, unbreakable thread between them. He’d kissed, her, and it was a kiss that he was still dizzy from. Sarah had melted in his arms. And he’s seen the silver cord.

They were soulmates. Even if they were parted, the cord would connect them. Nothing could sever that cord…

...except Sarah herself.

Kierlan had a chill of premonition. Maybe it was best to impress upon Sarah, and especially upon her subconscious, that once the cord was woven, she had sealed her fate. Sarah’s kiss and what it had called forth had determined her destiny.

But first he needed to get Mal, his soul’s brother, out of the way.

He glanced out Sarah’s window, the one that looked down on the front lawn. Mal was gazing down at Sarah, who lay on her still unmade bed, as if the sight of her had turned him to stone. Maybe it had. Who knew what Mal had done to keep himself from coveting Sarah?

Kierlan was probably the only person in the world who knew that Mal loved her. And Mal was no poacher. From the beginning Mal had acknowledged that Kierlan had a prior claim, and had given his solemn word not to infringe on that. He’d given his word that Sarah would be Kierlan’s and that he would never interfere.

Until recently only one person had known that Mal had broken his word. Had lied.

And that person wasn’t Mal. It was Kierlan.

Kierlan had used his powers, ruthlessly and without concern for Mal’s mental well-being, to cut through Mal’s elaborate defenses and show him the truth.

Not that Kierlan didn’t see the reasons for Mal’s treachery. After all, if there were no reasons to love Sarah, then Kierlan wouldn’t have loved her since he had met her; although, at six, he hadn’t really known it was love. He’d simply known that the fragile fairy-child with the windblown hair was his, sworn his and sealed with their kiss shared under the oleander bush. Kierlan hadn’t understood his powers then, but he had known that Sarah, with her heart-shaped face and aquamarine eyes, was part of him.

Bringing himself to the present with a jolt, Kierlan glanced out the window again. “You’d better get your car,” He said. “We’re going to have to get her and all her stuff out of here fast.”

“You mean kidnap her? Where?”

“Circle Daybreak, of course. Hurry up.”

But Mal, who usually too orders immediately, stared at him with those cloud-gray eyes. The chiseled features under his shock of dark hair expressed no emotion. “What about her stepfamily?”

Kierlan swore. “I’ll send them a freaking telegram!”

“No, I mean what if somebody sees us taking her and—”

“You worry too much. And that wasn’t a suggestion!” Kierlan didn’t like using the whiplash voice on Mal. But he had to get him away from Sarah before she woke.

Mal stood absolutely still for just a moment, then saluted Kierlan and departed silently.

Alone with Sarah at last, Kierlan sat by her on the bed and gently called her name. Her lashes were fluttering; she was deep in a nightmare-dream.

How did Mal do it? Mal always said he just spoke to her softly. But Kierlan didn’t have either the dispassionate voice or the time; he’d used a lot of Power already , and he knew how he wasnted to use the rest of it.

There was no choice but to control her mind directly.

He slipped in unnoticed, leaving her the privacy of her dreams, and told her to wake up. Wake up, Sarah. Now.

Kierlan? Sarah blinked and opened her eyes.

“It’s all right,” he said immediately, “you’re safe.” but Sarah was looking around the room in bewilderment.

“I’ve never dreamed this before.” she said, “I mean, me being in my room again while I was still in the middle of the other dream.”

“You’re not dreaming.”

The problem was that she was. He could tell that Sarah’s mind was still in REM sleep, her breathing rapid and irregular, her eyelashes quivering every few moments as if she were trying to focus on something in the distance and couldn’t.

One of the secrets of Kierlan’s success was his ability to adapt. “All right, you are dreaming.” he said, cupping a hand around Sarah’s chin to turn her to face him. “You’re dreaming about me.”

Sarah’s blush, which came up from her collarbones and never failed to arouse Kierlan’s wonder, was just as adorable when she was asleep as awake.

“Again?” she faltered. “I used to dream about you all the time, until… until the new dreams came.”

Kierlan’s heart melted. He could feel, amazingly, his own cheeks heat with blood. He hadn’t thought there was anything that could make him blush, not anymore.

“You dreamed about me?”

“Oh, all the time.”

It occurred to Kierlan that what he was doing was probably not quite fair. In fact, it was completely and distinctly unfair. In this dreamlike state Sarah was at his mercy; she would tell him the absolute truth about anything.

It was something he definitely had to take advantage of.

“Who do you love?” he whispered, taking her chin in his fingers and using his most intense gaze to hold those aquamarine eyes with the trembling, starry black lashes.

Sarah’s face went even softer, as if she could see glorious things behind Kierlan’s tawny eyes, as if she could see inside him and everything she saw made her want to melt in his arms

“Who do you love, Mal or me?” he repeated.

And the answer came back instantly, infuriatingly, “Both.”

Kierlan’s breath came out in a little explosion. “Look at this. See this?” He had to tip her head down to look at the silver cord that was taut between them. “Do you know what that means? It means that we’re soulmates. It means I’m yours and you’re mine. Mal hasn’t got anything to do with it. I’m your other half. You’re sworn mine, sealed mine, bound mine.”

The effect was not what he’d anticipated. Sarah was looking helplessly down, then she seemed to forget the silver cord, and her gaze wandered out the window. Looking for what? Mal?

Frustrated, almost frantic, Kierlan took Sarah by the shoulders. “You have to love me. You have to.”

And then he did something he knew he should be ashamed of.

He kissed her.

Helpless as she was, dreaming as she was, he kissed her.

And it was warm and sweet and long, and Sarah didn’t wake. She wound her arms around his neck and cuddled to him, little shivers going through her. In Kierlan’s mind, in Kierlan’s heart, in Kierlan’s soul, there was total anarchy, but overall there was only the thought of Sarah. His Sarah, sealed and bound to him forever.

Whatever might happen, whatever he might have to do, Kierlan had to keep Sarah.

I have no conscience or morality about this, he thought, holding Sarah, cradling her so that her soft, fine, freshly washed hair was against his cheek. He was thinking terrible things. Sarah had changed in the last few years. Her face was still waifish, her body still fragile, but there were changes. New curves under her simple T-shirts. Now, with her quiescent and seemingly happy, he was tempted to go farther—just a little…

No! Sarah had given him a kiss from her heart, even if he’d had to exercise all his powers of seduction to get it. The waking Sarah would never allow… she would beat him away… she would never speak to him, if he tried something like that. And even if she never found out, Kierlan would always imagine the beating hands, the shrieking. Even though they were soulmates, Sarah wasn’t ready to give him more.

But I still have no conscience, he told himself defiantly. I’m restraining myself for Sarah’s sake, and that’s all.

The thought of beating, thrashing hands and shrieking brought another scene to his mind, however. It made him remember vividly the very first time Sarah had kissed him. And suddenly Kierlan knew how to make Sarah his forever, without the possibility of interference by Mal, however tall and handsome and perfect Mal might be.

“Sarah?”

“Yes?” She was still asleep, with her great jewel-like eyes wide open in that gamine face.

“Sarah, can you remember when we first met? Do you remember that first day?”

Sarah’s features changed. Her eyelids went heavy, half-closed in bliss. Her mouth went so soft with adoration that Kierlan had to clench his fists to keep from stealing another kiss. Her whole face—glowed.

“I want to take you back to that day.” Kierlan whispered. “I want you to dream about that.”

He knew he was being hideously cruel and unfair. Those kisses had been won at a heavy, heavy cost. But just now he needed Sarah to remember how she’d felt about him before Mal had come into the picture. Kierlan needed her to remember how they had already been sworn together, so young.

“Go back.” Kierlan was whispering now, hypnotically. “I’ll go back with you. We’ll share our thoughts, our feelings. Go back to that first day…”

Unconsciously, Kierlan was swaying, and Sarah was swaying with him. Grasped in his arms, her mind dissolving in with his mind, Sarah was going back, and he was following.

[moonlightreal]

The big Strange Fate factoids roundup

Presented here is every bit of information about the plot of Strange Fate I could find, with links to sources. Canon is in bold, my commentary is in normal text, links are all here so if they don’t link you should be able to copy-paste. If you find anything I’m missing, please send it to me! I found sources for all the orphaned factoids that had been floating around in my brain, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t more out there.

Have fun! (it’s nine pages long...)

What about Strange Fate—really https://www.facebook.com/notes/684528395496843/?locale=hi_IN&paipv=0&eav=AfYTUg-qPuddohcLG_4yYui3c9CIr3W9GNa_yAwvyD7JeBCZ13KAEuoBWZhHUpOcR1A

I used new stories about what happens after a year to all the soulmate couples in the Night World series. They all had exciting stories to tell: Ash Redford is doing good deeds to make amends so that Mary-Lynnette will accept him as her soulmate. Poppy has developed her telepathy into a weapon against evil. Rashel and Quinn are married, as are Thierry and Hannah. And one lucky couple is expecting a baby.

From… I thought it was the author’s note from amazon for the hardcover editions, but it has a picture signature so may have been from LJ Smith’s website.

Although Thierry is an old vampire, he isn’t the oldest vampire. There is one older, the one who Changed him. She provides another thread that binds the series: the pitiless Maya. Maya is the first vampire, the witch who finds the secret of eternal life—and chooses to use it for evil. But there will be plenty more about her, including a look at the young Maya, her sister Hellewise, and their mother, Hecate Witch-Queen, in the upcoming Strange Fate.

From LJ Smith’s blog

18 August 2010, Ms. Smith answering a question about how she developed the idea of silver cords

https://web.archive.org/web/20131226172041/http://webmail.ljanesmith.net/blog/2010/238-more-news-a-the-silver-cord-a-dont-despair-delena

Imagine how Sarah Strange of Strange Fate, the last, LONG overdue Night World series when she sees two silver cords connecting her to the two guys she loves best in the world. Can I say confused? Maybe flummoxed is better.

And the silver cords have an additional function that won't be explained until Strange Fate finally comes out--I hope and pray in 2011. Something that may make it all make sense at last.

19 December 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20120512010007/http://www.ljanesmith.net/www/blog/2011

An image of Hecate Witch-Queen’s family tree of all the Redferns and Harmans with notes about what books the characters appear in. Here’s the list for Strange Fate:

Hecate herself, Hellewise, Iliana, and Aradia,

Thea and Blaise and Aunt Ursula

Phil and Poppy and their mother Phillipa, and James

Gillian

Maya Dragonslayer, the first vampire

Thierry and Hannah

Delos and Jez

Rowan, Kestrel and Jade and Ash

and

Mal Redfern Harman, vampire and witch

Ms. Smith also says,

I hope to do the same thing for the shapeshifters, although information about them is much more sparse. STRANGE FATE will clear up much of that confusion, and at last there will be enough about werewolves and other ’shifters to put onto paper. Right now, most people know that Galen Drache of the First Family of the Shapeshifters, whose chosen shape is a leopard to match his soulmate Keller’s black panther, has a cousin named Kierlan Drache who also chose a shape in the large cat family. And if you look at the very bottom of Hecate’s family tree you’ll find the vampire who is also a witch, although he hasn’t cultivated his powers, Mal Redfern Harman. (Witches are matrilineal—they pass the name through the female line). They’re the two soulmates of the human girl Sarah Strange.

So Mal is a hybrid and Kierlan the wild power is some kind of big cat. So much for my idea that he could be a good dragon! Also Hecate and Hellewise appear, and Maya may not be as dead as previously assumed.

24 June 2012 answering a fan question about recommending her own books, Ms. Smith posts the blurb for Last Lullaby https://web.archive.org/web/20130508094847/http://www.ljanesmith.net/blog/2012/560-some-interesting-questions-from-ziggy

or those who actually can fly: my latest book, THE LAST LULLABY, over 700 pages, and once part of STRANGE FATE. It is the tale of Brionwy and her guttersnipe friend, Crispy, who . . . oh, here’s the blurb:

THE LAST LULLABY is the story of Brionwy, daughter of Branwen, a courtesan in the harem of the Lord Overseer, Rajan Adani, who is the head of a Great House under the rule of the Masters. In this post-Apocalypse story, magic exists, but is rarely seen. Brionwy befriends Crispy, a little girl, or fawn, who has escaped from the pens in which all humans but the serving slaves of the Overseer, the guards, and the “humble and pathetic” Beauties in the harem are kept like animals.

Crispy has named herself for the burns that cover half of her body and have withered one of her arms. She considers herself slightly abled because of her baby arm; it looks useless but is almost as strong as the other. Tough, cynical, and quick to laugh at herself or others, Crispy’s life changes the day that she peeps through a hole in the harem wall and listens to Brionwy playing her lute and singing a heart-rending lullaby. Together, the two girls who come from the most different backgrounds imaginable, and with the help of Crispy’s gang of dwarfed, misshapen, deaf, and otherwise abled misfits, solve the mystery of a strange prophecy that leads to the secret of the nearby caverns and of how to fight the Masters. Despite the fearsome Guntra, Head Dwenna of Brionwy’s Concubine Pavilion; despite the Overseer himself, Brionwy and Crispy find themselves leading a revolution that will change the lives of all who belong to the Overseer’s Great House forever.

When THE LAST LULLABY comes out will be up to the publisher who buys it. Unlike all my other books since THE NIGHT OF THE SOLSTICE, I wrote it before trying to sell it.

1 Feb 2013 Sarah Strange description https://web.archive.org/web/20130703170137/http://www.ljanesmith.net/blog/2013/592-sarah-strange-of-strange-fate

I'm not really sure if this is the right place to post this, but I did do an avatar for Sarah Strange. As I work toward what I hope is the end of this book, really how extraordinarily fond I am of her, although she does not have outstanding brains and beauty. Sarah's qualities are more internal, and though she may have an ordinary face and ordinary brown hair, she has a deep, fierce love for all creatures flawed or fallen, or helpless, or striving. She loves forests and sees trees as dryads. She loves animals. She may be a little flat-chested, a little clumsy, a little naive, and a lot shy, but she never stops trying, or loving, or doing her best to understand.

Here she is, with brown hair that is always a bit disheveled and falling in her face, and with the Avatar version of her best feature:  aquamarine eyes that always look as if they are full of unshed tears.

4 Feb 2013 Strange Fate chapter 1 outline https://web.archive.org/web/20130628210912/http://www.ljanesmith.net/blog/2013/594-strange-fate-chapter-1-outline-with-ch-1-download

Ash and redhead: Ash: I’m trying to make amends for the harm that I did to you. Madelyn: At two o’clock in the morning in a cemetery?  Are you crazy?  First you stalk me and hide out in my closet so you can come out once I’m asleep in bed—” “I didn’t stalk you.  I don’t need to stalk you.  I just used a little magic to come in your bedroom window—” “And now you’re telling me all kinds of impossible lies—“ “They’re not lies.  I don’t lie anymore—well, not much anymore, and if you’d just give me a chance—“ “If you think this is the way to win a girl’s heart, then I have a hot news flash for you—” “But it is the way to win a girl’s heart.  Um . . . not your heart, is sort of the point.  Someone else’s . . .” “You brought me out here to talk about some other girl?” Madelyn hits him. Ash explains:

Who he is

What he is

What the Night World is

What he’s trying to do for his soulmate

Who Mary-Lynnette is 

Ash is divided into boredom of going through rote explanations (Madelyn is Lightly Bitten Girl #97) and an uncanny sense that something is around.  That something is stalking him.

Eventually he turns around, sees nothing, looks higher …  and higher … and higher … and sees evil red eyes staring down at him.    His mind reels.  He sees a flash of purple, shouts, “Look out” to Madelyn and dives for her.  She dodges, spraying him with pepper spray.  He staggers back; there is a black (violet-edged) flame like a burst from a flame-thrower and then there is only Ash, and a white silhouette of a woman on a charcoal-black wall.  Dreamily, Ash goes and scrapes a little of the charcoaled blackness off the wall outside the shadow when he once again feels something behind him.  He whirls and finds himself staring at Sarah: description (aquamarine eyes, ordinary face, mouse-brown hair). Sarah wakes up, tosses mouse-brown hair off her face, and realizes she is late for school.

You can also read the whole chapter. Mary-Lynette is in college. Sarah is fifteen or sixteen, so younger than the other characters. She dreams of Ash and appears to him as a ghost. So, astral projection. She has an instinctive loathing for vampires.

Ask LJ question about Strange Fate’s release—undated but accessible without the wayback machine. https://ljanesmith.net/ask-l-j/

“I don’t know.  As you’ve probably heard, I wanted to publish this epic in two volumes, but Simon & Schuster did not.  I had what I felt was a complete volume already finished—the first half of Strange Fate, called The Mystic—before I began to write any of my recent Vampire Diaries books Nightfall, etc).  At this point, I don’t even have a signed contract for Strange Fate, but I keep working on it, these days using the ‘cameo appearance’ of old soulmates and friends in place of seeing a post-apocalypitic fututre with Brionwy and her young friend Crispy.”

And, yes, it is true that Brionwy’s Lullabye was originally part of Strange Fate, but the post apocalyptic future that Sarah Strange dreamed about Brionwy and her friends sort of took over the whole book.  So I had to extract them, and instead had Sarah dream about the soulmated couples you’ve already seen in Night World.  This turned out to be much better for Strange Fate anyway, as you get to see Poppy and James, and Phillip and every other pair of soulmates in the series, even if its just a cameo role.  I plan to write Brionwy’s Lullabye as a book of its own.  I do love the characters.”

Question about strong female characters

Some of my characters don’t start out as strong girls. They start out as shy, introverted or gentle girls, like Cassie Blake of The Secret Circle, or Jenny Thornton of The Forbidden Game. Then the story is about how they become stronger, through their terrifying experiences and their concern for other people. Strange Fate has this kind of a heroine, Sarah Strange.”

The stories https://web.archive.org/web/20191019132319/http://www.ljanesmith.net/stories/stories

These stories take place during the apocalypse, while the Wild Powers are off on their mission. You should go read the whole thing, but here are the factoids I got from each of them.

Thicker than Water

The characters live in the Circle Daybreak town of Harmony, with Thierry and Hannah basically ruling as king and queen. The town has cryogenics and a scientific/magical effect that makes time pass slower in the “underground tower that is the heart of the town.” The town has a park on the surface where shapeshifters and vampires can hunt animals. Dragons try to infiltrate the town. San Francisco has been destrpyed.

The wild powers are fighting against hundreds of dragons. Iliana has acquired the title Mistress of Air.

Hannah has gone with the wild powers on the mission. Thierry has not. Keller and Galen and Rashel and Quinn are still in Harmony.

Everyone was very impressed by Sarah, she’s “almost a dryad” and has prophetic dreams. So everybody met her at some point.

Keller and Rashel are twins, born to one human and one shapeshifter. Timmy has been retconned to Rashel’s friend not her brother.

Those who Favor Fire

The Circle Daybreak members have started wearing white flower pendants as identification and also as to who you gave your allegiance to. The jewelry serves as a key to get into Harmony. Thierry is basically king, but at least Iliana has her followers. Circle Daybreak has many trained professionals who have taken out the nastier Night World enclaves and imprisoned the nastiest vampires and shapeshifters.

There was also a “time bubble” in San Francisco.

Cambridge Massachusetts has been destroyed as the beginning of the apocalypse. The dragons suddenly start destroying cities with Circle Daybreak enclaves in them. Fire, weirdly colored sky. The dragons put a telepathic call on all humans and most of them walked off to meet the dragons. Some stayed behind to capture people who didn’t hear the call. Mary-Lynette didn’t, so probably having a soulmate protects you.

Sarah and her boys are in Harmony when things go down. Thierry gifted her a helicopter, which she gives Ash so he can look for Mary-Lynette.

Mary-Lynette rescues a girl names Devi who has very important pictures faxed from her mother in antarctica… The mother is studying meteorites and has found something that Devi thinks might save the world. We don’t know what the pictures are, and how a human would find the answer to the problem of “dragons” isn’t clear.

This is the last Ash rescue story and it happens as the apocalypse kicks off. So if Sarah has been dreaming the other stories as they happen, then a good bit of Strange Fate happens before the apocalypse. What is Sarah doing while she’s awake all that time?

Strange Fate Previews and chapters https://web.archive.org/web/20191020013828/http://mail.ljanesmith.net/stories/sneak-peeks

Poppy, Phil and James

Poppy has become a badass warrior with her vampire strength, and can use her telepathy to control human minds. She can also use it as an anti-dragon weapon, with help from James and Phil! Also Phil has joined Team Circle Daybreak and is riding the helicopter with Ash.

Aradia had a vision that whoever is controlling the dragons knows that the youngest generation of Harmans and Redferns, especially the ones with soulmates, are able to fight the dragons.

Brionwy’s Lullaby

In this dark future beautiful human girls are courtesans, raised in basically harems to be food and mates for vampire overlords. They are guarded by eunuchs and kept in line by “dwennas” women who raise, teach and discipline them. The girls are drugged but it’s not clear why. When one girl has a baby, it is taken away and the mother is told it has died, but clearly it’s still alive and taken for some dark purpose-- whatever could be darker than the purposes we already know about!

Brionwy has been taught that she has human dignity, she’s been taught to fight, and she can read pre-apocalypse books. She understands the idea of post-partum depression, and read the words which I guess makes sense in a place where people have lots of babies. She learned to not drink the everyday drugs.

There is a special drink that makes the girls sleep when a dragon visits so they won’t all go to it and get eaten. Maybe the dragons can’t control their calling ability.

Anyone not beautiful enough lives in pens to breed more slaves and be food for dragons.

So Brionwy’s story will be about finding out what’s happened to the vanished babies, escaping the harem and probably meeting the girl Crispy who lives out in the ruins. And then, who can say? Their future will be erased when the wild powers stop the apocalypse

Blurbs

Google books blurb https://books.google.com/books/about/Strange_Fate.html?id=jZFmkgEACAAJ

Simon Pulse, 1998 - Juvenile Fiction - 224 pages

Sarah Strange and her lover, the gentle vampire Blade, watch their peaceful life in New England come to an end when Sarah's family is asked to hide an arrogant male witch whose supernatural powers draw Sarah into his clutches.

Google books blurb 2

Hodder & Stoughton, 1998 - Witches - 224 pages

Sarah is a human girl who is happy to be with Blade, a strong yet gentle vampire she regards as her soulmate. However, when an arrogant witch called Kierlan comes to town, Sarah is strongly attracted to him. But who is her true soulmate? In the NIGHT WORLD series

google books blurb 3 https://books.google.com/books/about/Strange_Fate.html?id=k0BEPwAACAAJ

Simon Pulse, Dec 31, 2030 - Juvenile Fiction - 528 pages

Vampires, werewolves, witches, shapeshifters -- they live among us without our knowledge. Night World is their secret society, a secret society with very strict rules. And falling in love breaks all the laws of the Night World.

Sarah Strange's life was what you might call ordinary. Then her mother died.

Now Sarah has visions -- visions of a place where dragons darken the sky and a young girl is fighting to survive.

When Sarah confides in her best friends, Mal and Kierlan, about the devastation in her dreams, she discovers that her friends are not what they seem. They are part of the Night World -- and they believe Sarah has a special role in their world. And if Sarah's visions are any indication of the impending danger and destruction, there is no time to lose.…

Goodreads blurb, dated 7 2012

Also on amazon dated 11 2006

Sarah Strange is a normal teenager with annoying siblings and a crush on two boys, Mal and Kierlan, who happen to be her best friends. But Sarah also has visions of a place where dragons darken the sky and feast on humans. When Sarah confides in Mal and Kierlan about her visions, she discovers her friends are not who they seem. They are part of the Night World. And they believe Sarah must help establish peace and harmony between humans and creatures of the Night World to stave off the apocalypse. And if Sarah’s visions are any indication of the danger, destruction, and devastation that the apocalypse will bring, there is no time to lose…

Risingshadow blurb https://www.risingshadow.net/book/22703-strange-fate

Sarah Strange is a fragile human girl – happy in Circle Daybreak with her soulmate, Blade, a gentle Vampire. Then Kierlan comes to town. He is an arrogant witch and a Wild Power, and Sarah is strongly attracted to him. But who is her real soulmate? And is the answer waiting in the Night World?

Blurb from Kinokuniya Malaysia

A long-awaited conclusion to the best-selling series finds Sarah journeying with Mal and Kierlan to the Night World to prevent an apocalypse in the dragon-oppressed world of her visions. Original.

I wouldn’t put too much credence on a blurb that might be translated from another language but it’s possible evidence that the three main characters go on the quest.

Speaking of which:

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Strange finds life a mass of contradictions. She’s an ordinary-looking girl, and yet two of the most popular guys at school form her circle of friends. Kierlan Drache and Mal Harman, who are as unalike as any two people can be. That ought to make her happy, but recently she’s been having romantic feelings about each of them—and has seen two silver cords: one reaching from her to Kierlan, and one from her to Mal. What’s going on? In addition, every night she dreams of a future where dragons and vampires rule the world, and of a brave child called Crispy. For a girl who hasn’t even heard of the Night World yet, Sarah has a lot to handle! Even worse, the Apocalypse has finally come—and even the Wild Powers see only one way to stop it. This is an epic volume, which stars all the most beloved Night Worlders from the other books. Be prepared, though, because seven go on a mission to save the world . . . and only two come back.

I found this blurb on a sales site as a review, on a site in Russian, and where I posted it. I didn’t make it up, I found it somewhere, but I can’t track it back to a source! And this is the only source for killing off five characters!

Or maybe Jez and Delos come home to their soulmates and Sarah and Mal go off on a different quest so are still alive just not coming back to Harmony, or maybe some characters become guardian spirits or time travel to the past or take up new lives in another realm… there are lots of not-actually-death options, but you know what I mean.

The first two chapters from the Fan Guide. As of 2009. Linking myself, though I’m not the only person to have posted them.

Sarah has a plant theme. She’s only good at art and math in school.

Sarah is in honors math, Mal is in regular math and Kierlan takes math at “the junior college.” There’s their academic-ness ranked. Kierlan flipped a girl’s skirt and Mal is “master of the cold stare.” Mal is described as having dark hair and very pale gray eyes. Not the Harman coloring! Kierlan has dark red hair and “tawny eyes.” Ms. Smith does love her golden-eyed characters!

Sarah gets migraines and in the middle of them passes out and has visions of the dark future. She smells roses before an attack.

Preview from the back of the third omnibus edition https://www.tumblr.com/moonlightreal/742175609526075392/another-strange-fate-preview?source=share

Kierlan considers himself and Mal “soul brothers.” They had a gentleman’s agreement that Kierlan would be the one to be with Sarah, though they both love her.

Kierlan can see his silver cord with Sarah, but not Sarah’s silver cord with Mal. Kierlan is desperate for Sarah to be in love with him and not with Mal. They met as children and he has been in love with her ever since. Kierlan believes Sarah could cut the silver cord between them.

This sneak peak describes being soulmates sort of differently than all the Night World books so far, describing the cord as being “woven” in a way that almost suggests a cord could be artificially created. It doesn’t come out and say it but… read the passage and see how it strikes you.

It’s possible that this scene happens right after the chapter in the fan guide. Sarah collapses at school, the guys take her home, this scene occurs, we get a flashback to Kierlan and Sarah meeting, then the boys kidnap her and take her to Circle Daybreak which is why she’s in Harmony for the apocalypse.

Art from LJ Smith’s website https://ljanesmith.net/gallery/

Kierlan’s animal form is a tiger.

...ok, so what’d I miss?

Next I have to turn this soup of factoids into a coherent topic-by-topic list of what we know and see how much of Strange Fate I can REALLY reconstruct! *cracks knuckles*

[moonlightreal]

So what are we missing?

We know a fair bit about Strange Fate and can read the first chapter.  There’s even a picture of the main character, in case you want to draw her.

Other blurbs from around the internet, with my commentary:

“Sarah Strange and her lover, the gentle vampire Blade, watch their peaceful life in New England come to an end when Sarah's family is asked to hide an arrogant male witch whose supernatural powers draw Sarah into his clutches. “

This is an old blurb, and sounds pretty different from the other summaries I found.  The story has had fifteen years to evolve.

“Sixteen-year-old Sarah Strange finds life a mass of contradictions. She’s an ordinary-looking girl, and yet two of the most popular guys at school form her circle of friends. Kierlan Drache and Mal Harman, who are as unalike as any two people can be. That ought to make her happy, but recently she’s been having romantic feelings about each of them—and has seen two silver cords: one reaching from her to Kierlan, and one from her to Mal. What’s going on? In addition, every night she dreams of a future where dragons and vampires rule the world, and of a brave child called Crispy. For a girl who hasn’t even heard of the Night World yet, Sarah has a lot to handle! Even worse, the Apocalypse has finally come—and even the Wild Powers see only one way to stop it. This is an epic volume, which stars all the most beloved Night Worlders from the other books. Be prepared, though, because seven go on a mission to save the world . . . and only two come back.”

So Blade the vampire turned into Kierlan the shapeshifter, I’m assuming, and “Crispy” is Brionwy who became the star of The Last Lullaby.  I wonder how that changes Sarah’s dreams in Strange fate.  Also, if anybody is thinking of doing a fanfic Strange Fate you now have to choose five characters to kill!  Yikes!

(Edit much later: Crispy and Brionwy are not the same character. I assumed they were for a long time, but they aren’t.  Brionwy is a teenage girl in a sort of evil vampire harem, and Crispy is a younger, badly scarred girl living out in the post-apocalyptic wastes.  I think.) 

Sarah Strange is a normal teenager with annoying siblings and a crush on two boys, Mal and Kierlan, who happen to be her best friends.

However, Sarah also has visions of a place where dragons darken the sky and feast on humans. When Sarah confides in Mal and Kierlan about her visions, she discovers her friends are not who they seem.

They are part of the Night World. And they believe Sarah must help establish peace and harmony between humans and creatures of the Night World to stave off the apocalypse.

And if Sarah’s visions are any indication of the danger, destruction, and devastation that the apocalypse will bring, there is no time to lose…

Peace and harmony between humans and creatures of the Night World?  That suggests a possible revelation of supernatural creatures ending, which could be cool.

Book ten (not yet published) reportedly follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Sarah Strange, who has mysterious dreams of Night World inhabitants. It is intended to be the conclusion of the Night World series, leading up to the apocalypse. On January 22, 2012, L. J. Smith claimed at her website under the "Burning Fan Questions" section "shows the endgame for nearly all the main characters you have seen in the Night World series as Ash helps them. It tells of Sarah Strange and her two soulmates (one of whom is the last Wild Power, Kierlan Drache).

So Kierlan is the last wild power, and from his name is probably a shapeshifter, and from his last name Mal must be a witch.  Unless either of them are mixed-types; Jez was a vampire/human hybrid so in theory one of the boys could be a supernatural two-fer.

“The epic STRANGE FATE cuts that long time down to a year, so that you’ll see all the soulmated couples as they are after about a year of living, learning, and loving. Some even get married—and one couple ends up expecting the patter of tiny footsteps. Don’t even ask who, because it’s a deep, dark secret.”

Night World: The Next Generation!  I’ll put my money on Gillian and David for the baby, for no particular reason.

Keep in mind these blurbs are, well, blurbs, and blurbs don’t always reflect the actual book.  But this is plenty for a true fan to write their own Strange Fate, should any fan feel called to do so.