Chalice of Life

Imagine Lord of the Rings and put it into space. Cross Assimov's science fiction and Middle Earth. What you get is The Adventures of the Carotian Union by Karen Webb. Karen happens to be the editor of Spear of Seth, but she is an accomplished author of her own and waaayyy ahead of myself when it comes to publishing. Look here: http://www.chaliceoflife.com/. Karen completed two of the books of the series, but there will be eight of them, or so I hear. Chalice of Life is the first and Tapestry of Enchantment is the second, and, in my opinion, it is better than the first, which is already very good. I look forward to the third one, the Lamp of Truth. I hear that this will carry strong eastern motifs and strongly hope for flying carpets. Karen publishes with Dragon Moon, which is a small outfit, but it plays an important role if you are fan of science fiction. Read it. You will not regret it.