I happened upon your book and noticed you are very close to the end date of your funding period and nowhere near your goal. I know how that feels, but I also didn't want to make an empty gesture by placing a pre-order when we both know damn well one copy is not going to make or break you at this point. So I'd thought I'd share some brutally honest feedback instead. First off, love your cover art and title. Very intriguing. It got me to click on your book. Second, I love the description you give for your novel. It sounds like a lot of different cultures and mythologies have influenced your writing.  Third, the sample chapter you have posted is a little confusing. Reading it, I got a sense of the setting--some type of tree town with canals for canoes--but no real sense of who Kaing is or what he was doing in the Maunth town. I also never really got the sense of what Maunths were. Are they a people or some different type of creature? I feel like you must be struggling with how to introduce your story. I struggle with the same thing myself. You have so many angles you want to approach it from--culture, ideologies, plots, people, places, etc... But in your sample--as someone who is completely new to your work--everything comes out muddled. It feels like you spent so much time describing the setting, your forgot about doing the same for your characters.  I am following this project because I would love to see a new incarnation of The Speakers of Eloa, a first chapter that provides these three things:1) Who your main character is and what kind of person they are.2) Where your main character is and why they are there.3) Why this (your character and their purpose) is important (or will become important) to the overall plot of the story.Give me these three things clearly and succinctly, and I will not hesitate to back your project in its next iteration.Regards,Amanda