Clan Ground is the second novel in Clare Bell’s chronicle of prehistoric cats, The Named.

With her mastery over fire – known as “the Red Tongue” – Ratha now leads the Named, a clan of sentient, prehistoric big cats with their own language, traditions, and law. But her control becomes threatened with the arrival of an outsider. An Un-Named stranger with orange eyes arrives, bringing political savvy and a desire to use “the Red Tongue” for his own purposes.

As the clan begins to worship the Red Tongue, they see their territory expand, but at what cost? The Red Tongue is an unthinking master of great force, able to destroy those who fail to rein in its power. Ratha may have the solution, but does she truly desire the responsibility of ruling her clan and the Red Tongue? Do the Named have a future without her?

Readers who fell in love with the noble cats and suspense of Ratha’s Creature will love this captivating tale that grabs you from the very first page.

“A page-turner—full of suspense and action—that will be enthusiastically welcomed by Ratha admirers.”
—Booklist

Twenty-five million years in the past, a clan of sentient, prehistoric big cats called “the Named” have their own language, traditions, and law. Led by Meoran, the Named herd horses and deer for food. They keep order and peace, fending off predatory raiders–the UnNamed–from all sides. But, the battle has taken its toll, and the Named are skirting the edge of survival.

Much to the displeasure of Meoran, a young female named Ratha discovers a powerful defense against the UnNamed. She calls it “the Red Tongue,” and it is a creature of incredible power. Red Tongue is fire, a force of both life and destruction that must be at once nurtured and tamed.

Sensing that Ratha’s mastery of fire threatens his power, Meoran banishes her from the clan. As she travels out amongst the savage UnNamed, Ratha learns about both them and herself. But, her tribe needs her. Can she return? Will the Named survive constant attacks without the Red Tongue? Will the power of the Red Tongue change the clan forever?

Author Clare Bell crafts a serious adventure and coming-of-age story, filled with triumph and heartbreak. Ratha’s Creature, the first book of the Named series, sets this quintet of fantasies in motion. The fifth and final novel, Ratha’s Courage, is also available from E-Reads and we will be filling in volumes 2-4 in due course.

From Jean M. Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear to Linda Lay Shuler’s She Who Remembers, novels set among pre-historic cultures have shown a very strong appeal for fans of both genre fantasy and historical romance. E-Reads is pleased to offer a three-volume epic of ancient Tahiti by Clare Coleman.

In the first volume, Daughter of the Reef, Tepua, the daughter of a chief sails from her coral atoll home toward her planned, and ritually mandated, marriage. But she never reaches her destination because a violent storm damages her vessel and leaves her stranded on the shores of Tahiti, a land previously unknown to her. She is made unwelcome because of her foreignness and is victimized because of her weakness and innocence, but her spirit is strong and her will to survive and thrive is boundless.

The world of Tahiti is very different from the one she has known, beautiful, savage and mystical by turns. But she is determined to build herself a new life and, in the process, she will change the destiny of all for generations to come.

If you find yourself seduced by Tahita and Tepua first adventure, you’ll want to read the sequels, Sister of the reef and Child of the Dawn.  Look for them here.

“Clare Coleman” is a joint pseudonym for Clare Bell, author of the Ratha series about pre-historic giant cats, and Malcolm Coleman Easton.

RC

Clare Bell’s Jaguar Princess brings the author’s gifts for fantasy to the exotic world of the Aztecs.

Mixcati’s people are descended from the Olmec Jaguar Gods and she is fated for great things—both wonderful and dangerous. She can, unexpectedly and without warning, turn into a living, wild Jaguar, just as her ancestors have done since time immemorial. Once stolen into slavery, she must struggle to survive and to learn to fulfill her destiny in an Aztec culture that understands her strength, fears her power and wants her dead. She must face destruction at their hands—or come into her true power as The Jaguar Princess.

Click here to see all Clare Bell titles published by E-Reads.

In People of the Sky by Clare Bell, old technology survives and even thrives on the challenges of a new planet populated by ancient human spirits.

Kesbe Temiya, a freelance flyer, accepts a commission to deliver an ancient-but-restored C-47 (a Gooney Bird in 20th Century parlance, named The Gooney Berg by its new owner) to a collector of rare aircraft on the planet Oneway.

Dropped off by a starship, Temiya gets side-tracked by bad weather, rescued by a mysterious figure riding an alien flying creature and stranded in a long-vanished Pueblo Indian colony which follows the prophecy of the Blue Star Kachina and lives the old ways, isolated from technology and away from the white man. Despite her own Pueblo blood, Kesbe is an outsider and only by adopting the ways of the People of the Sky, including a ritual that may turn her, too, into a throwback and could even kill her, can she find the help she needs to fulfill her mission—and find the life that is right for her.

Click here to see all Clare Bell titles published by E-Reads.

Ratha, the fire-wielding leader of Clare Bell’s prehistoric cat clan, is back after an almost intolerably long wait, and her fans couldn’t be happier to greet Ratha’s Courage. After introducing her protagonist in 1983 in the now classic hardcover, Ratha’s Creature (Atheneum/Margaret McElderry Books) Bell followed up with three sequels: Clan Ground, Ratha and Thistle-chaser, and Ratha’s Challenge. The quartet went out of print, but Firebird Books, a division of Penguin, recently brought them out again.

In writing Ratha’s Courage, Bell returned to the strength of her award-winning first volume but drew on up-to-date paleontology. She researched a leopard-like paleofelid and a cheetah-like sister species. From the latter she generated her fictional “Named” race.

To learn more about Bell’s creative process and the evolution of Ratha, and to find out why there’s been such a long gap after Ratha’s Creature, click here.

E-Reads is thrilled to launch this long-awaited return of a classic fantasy figure.

– Richard Curtis