I’m very excited and proud to announce the release of not one but two new books in my new Dungeon Age series. The first title is Beneath the Dying Land, a sword-and-sorcery adventure novel inspired by all my favorite classics from Tolkien’s Middle-Earth to Vance’s Dying Earth to Cook’s Black Company and beyond, for fans of Conan, Fafhrd, Cugel, Elric, Raistlin, and Croaker. The second title is Exiled: Beyond the Metal River, a mythic fantasy novella written during my Twitch Writes Fantasy project.
Beneath the Dying Land
Ezra Dunes served his country. He slew the undead, hunted rogue wizards, and delved into ancient tombs to confront unspeakable horrors. He lost friends, and collected scars. Now at home, he just wants to take care of his family. But he carries a wound, a sleepy parasite that whispers murderous evils into his mind. And when yet another mad sorcerer starts opening portals to the underworld, Ezra’s parasite awakens, offering to help him save his family from the rampaging demons while leading him deeper into the darkness of his own fears and the forgotten world that lies beneath the dying land.
Explore a fantasy world where heaven and hell both lie buried under the known realms, where inhuman angels conscript lost orphans to become holy warriors, where elves and dwarves hide in distant jungles and frozen wastes, where the dune seas and red mesas are home to giant scorpions and cursed jackal-folk, and only a few last human cities still stand against the ever-growing desert. Yet below the surface, lost kingdoms and alien ecosystems glimmer in the darkness, full of forgotten magics and monsters, waiting to be rediscovered…
Exiled: Beyond the Metal River
For twenty years, Vikram survived in the shadows of Urva Songos, the City of Dreams, hiding from the clerics who want to imprison him in their temple for his celestial healing powers. But one wrong turn sends Vikram dashing from alleys to rooftops, hurled into a prison cell, and then banished to a strange land of ice and shadow.
Trapped in the frozen wastes of the underworld, Vikram befriends a rather gloomy talking goat, and together they explore the ruins of a dying realm, from the haunted black towers of the witch-lords to the corpse-strewn Field of Tears, and deep into the decaying palace of the Dawn Queen. Hunted by living shadows, burrowing monstrosities, and a vengeful wizard, Vikram races to find a way home…
Publisher’s Note: This fantasy novella was written during the 2019 “Twitch Writes Fantasy” project, in which the author invited his audience to vote on various character and plot decisions, and then he crafted the story to bring those choices to life.