Niah Bach brings the Praetoria Chronicles to BookNest

Harbinger opens in Praetoria, an empire where the elite are said to have no special talents. Yet the only imperial princess is suffering vision-like nightmares that foretell the destruction of her world and the death of her family, and every day the dreams gain strength in their horror. The return of a particular imperial rook changes their tone and gives her much needed relief, but that comfort is its own problem: he is a rook and she is an elite, and the law strictly forbids a union between the two. Four little female moiohs scheme to bring them together, providing a path to secure a future that traitors are already working to steal by using the princess to take her father's throne.

The novel arrives after one of the longest gestations in recent independent fantasy. Niah Bach dreamed the foundation of the Praetoria Chronicles at the age of seventeen and deliberately waited until she was twenty-five to begin writing, believing she did not yet have the life experience to do the story justice. It took twelve more years to finish the book and another eleven to see it published.

The road to print ran through a working life she now describes in the language of her own world: a healer first, as a massage therapist, then a merchant behind a sales counter, and finally a dedicated scribe. She credits her success to God, to her family, and to the readers and friends who supported her across those years.