Tag: Epic fantasy

Test of the Four: Book Two of the Serrulata Saga

“Outside the Realm, everything is unknown.”
Having paid a high price to pass through the Border, the Four depart the only lands they’ve ever known. They’re faced with immediate problems and unknown dangers as they begin the perilous journey toward the fabled city of New York.
As they travel, Leora struggles to hone her powers. Roland and Aurora attempt to explore their new romantic relationship, and Leopold battles with his inner demons.
Meanwhile, all is not right within the Realm. The young sovereign continues to wield his new powers erratically, threatening the lives of every citizen. Now, several members of the gentry must navigate through the chaos to protect their homes and families.
Can the Four survive their journey? And if they do, will there be a Realm for them to return to?

Book Reviews

Rebellion is Due: Ruarnon Trilogy Prequel

Everywhere he looks, 15-year-old Urmllian sees his people suffering under brutal foreign occupation. High taxes drive poverty and malnutrition, while the execution of anyone suspected of resistance has the people of Tarlah on their knees. Urmilian longs to join his father’s uprising and free his people, despite father’s orders to protect the family home. When occupying soldiers turn on the Tarlahans, Urmilian’s younger brother calls for aid. But the streets are filling with soldiers. If Urmilian doesn’t help cut them off, the city will be overrun. So he risks both their lives by abandoning his household’s defence and joining his older sister on the front line.
An action-packed YA Fantasy short story (7500 words), set before Manipulator’s War.

Book Reviews

The Rarkyn’s Familiar

An orphan bent on revenge. A monster searching for freedom. A forbidden pact that binds their fates.
Lyss had heard her father’s screams, smelled the iron-tang of his blood. She witnessed his execution.
And plotted her revenge.
Then, a violent encounter traps Lyss in a blood-pact with a rarkyn from the otherworld, imbuing her with the monster’s forbidden magic—a magic that will erode her sanity.
To break the pact, she and the rarkyn must journey to the heart of the Empire. All that stands in their way are the mountains, the Empire’s soldiers, and Lyss’ uneasy alliance with the rarkyn.
But horrors await them on the road—horrors that even rarkyns fear. The most terrifying monster isn’t the one Lyss travels with.
It’s the one that’s awoken inside her.
Monsters of a feather flock together.

Book Reviews

Gathering of the Four: Book One of the Serrulata Saga

One peasant woman will be the catalyst for a revolution.
“In the Realm, every citizen knows their place.”
Leora of Mae is a young woman orphaned at birth and raised on a remote farm. As a wielder of Xanthcraft, her abilities set her apart from her adoptive family and the other villagers.
Shortly before her twentieth birthday, she learns of her family’s plot to sell her into servitude. Fearing for her life, she flees from the only home she’s ever known—defying societal conventions and breaking the edicts of the Realm.
As she runs, Leora meets Roland Shallowbrook, a traveler on the Thieves’ Road; Lady Aurora Verte, daughter of a powerful member of the gentry; and the White Rider Leopold, a soldier with a secret.
Together, this found family will have to band together to survive.

Book Reviews

Manipulator’s War: Ruarnon Trilogy, Book 1

All roads lead to war.
Nonbinary Ruarnon is determined to prove their worth as heir to Tarlah’s perfect King. But when their parents are abducted, Ruarnon must rule Tarlah in the face of unreliable allies, a brutal expansionist neighbour, and binary male warriors who doubt the lead of a bookish enby youth.
Neighbouring King Kyura faces opposition, as peace-loving ruler of warmongering subjects who dream of expanding their empire. Ruarnon is vulnerable in the absence of their allies, but when Kyura rejects calls to conquer Tarlah once and for all, assassins threaten his family and mutiny threatens his reign.
Trapped in Ruarnon’s world, Linh is desperate to return to her family in Australia, and isn’t above using her host’s belief that she’s a figure from local myth to achieve it. But her gateway home lies on the far side of a brewing war, and her only transport is Ruarnon’s absent allies, sailing to Tarlah’s aid.
A new breed of creature threatens them all: a plague of monsters sailing towards Kyura and Ruarnon’s lands. Linh’s monster observations could save Kyura and Ruarnon’s people, ending the war between them, and clearing Linh’s homeward path. But the price is dear; Linh must risk her life aiding Ruarnon.
And to secure peace with Kyura’s unruly subjects, Ruarnon’s ultimate test as heir risks betrayal and Tarlah’s bloody defeat.

Book Reviews

Hyperbia

Epic fantasy gets turned on its head and slapped with a wet fish.
Elves are snobby brunch enthusiasts, ogres are pacifistic yoga buffs, and the “hero” is a mild-mannered misfit who prefers strudels to swords. Welcome to Hyperbia.
Tubbart Schepps is a generally nice guy. Thus concludes his positive traits. The tragically named, socially inept, morbidly rotund dreamer gets through life on the comfort of food and imagination. One day, after a mortally embarrassing workplace mishap, Tubbart stumbles as far away as he can get. Which is the nearest bus stop. There, he is unwittingly spirited to the fantastical realm of Hyperbia, where magic larks and absurdity stumbles after. A noble elf prince takes Tubbart under his quiver, and the days are equal parts joyous and bizarre. But not all is sunshine and elfwine. An evil fairy bent on revenge is freshly risen, and seeks nothing less than utter annihilation of the realm.