Leopold author concludes fantasy series

LEOPOLD author Lauren Thompson has this month dropped the final instalment in her middle-grade and young adult fantasy trilogy Isle of Dragons.

Blending adventure, magic and romance, The Ruler of Vansh continues the story of steampunk heroine Jade Sol and her friends as they race, at great personal cost, to uncover truths and reverse the damage done to the isle before it spreads to the rest of the world.

“[Jade’s] story has been about who she is as a person and determining the kind of person she wants to be,” Ms Thompson said.

“She had started off in an environment where she felt rather trapped and didn’t feel like she could really be herself, and this final book is about her taking that final step in her journey.

“A big part of her journey is learning to have some sort of balance, because she wants to look after everyone and wants to help everyone, but she also needs to value herself and what she wants as well.”

A former copywriter and Deakin University alumni, Ms Thompson began writing a little over three years ago and published her first novel – the first in the Isle of Dragons trilogy – in 2020.

“I grew up loving fantasy and loving all kinds of unique worlds,” Ms Thompson said.

“I think that children can find so much joy in these different worlds and it can create a playground for their imagination, and it can inspire them in so many ways.”

Her writing is heavily inspired by American speculative fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and uses fantasy genre tropes such as prophecies to challenge the ideas of her readers.

“What we want, it’s not determined by any big prophecies or anything like that, but who we are,” Ms Thompson said.

“We’re not defined by our past or what’s happened to us, but who we choose to be and the community that we have, [that] we choose to have around us.”

While The Ruler of Vansh marks the epic conclusion to the Isle of Dragons trilogy, fans of the untamed magical land Ms Thompson has created can look forward to more stories centred around new characters and based in the same world.

The Ruler of Vansh is available at bookstores across Geelong, as well as Amazon and Barnes and Noble.