The AppleTV series Pluribus stars Rhea Seahorn as Carol Sturka, a romantasy writer who doesn’t care for her genre. As the show opens, she’s released a new book, Bloodsong of Wycaro, and now you can read a little slice of it.
“I’m going to do something that is antithetical to capitalism: give my work away for free. A bit of it, anyway,” writes Carol in the letter for Bloodsong, which now has a free 11-page excerpt you can read on Apple Books. Like on the show, she’s fed up with her audience fretting about the lack of Raban on the cover, so the excerpt—Chapter 16, “The Isle of Sanantes”—confirms Captain Lucasia’s longtime lover Raban is alive and well after he was made to walk the plank in the previous book, Stormshadow. You may recall in the Pluribus pilot that Carol hinted as much to a fan.
As for the full Bloodsong book, Lucasia is tasked with saving her crew after they’ve been afflicted with a curse that’s left them bedridden. With few able-bodied workers left, they brave a nasty storm to reach the isle and find Madam Asclepius, a banished healer who may be able to help.
Along with the chapter and letter, the excerpt includes Carol’s author bio—her books have won “multiple honors,” including the Mars & Eros Reader’s Choice Award—and an end page hyping up the show. This whole thing may remind some folks of what Apple did for Severance, whose self-help book The You You Are from Ricken Hale got a downloadable version back in January.
New episodes of Pluribus premiere Fridays on Apple TV. For those who read the Bloodsong of Wycaro excerpt and have a romantasy background, let us know in the comments below how it’d fare as a real book in the genre.
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