Cashore, Kristin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Graceling is a fantasy by Kristin Cashore. It is her debut novel. It tells the story of a warrior on a journey of discovery about herself. The book earned a place on the Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year for 2008 and received generally favourable reviews. Gracelings are people born with an extreme talent, known as a Grace. Rare enough to be unusual, they are feared for their difference and often exploited for their skill. Katsa, the protagonist, has been able to kill people with her bare hands since she was eight and is famous within the seven kingdoms for the violent acts she carries out on behalf of her uncle, King Randa. Of late she has struggled to reconcile her conscience with these acts but rather than challenge her uncle's authority over her, she has sought to employ less debilitating attack strategies and build up a clandestine organisation that promotes justice over cruelty and abuses of power. During the course of a secret mission, she meets Po, another Graced fighter and the first person to come close to matching her skill. A bond forms between the two that causes each to discover startling truths about oneself, the other and the kingdoms.