0. The Call of Sage and Kindred
1. The Wars of Gods and Men
2. The Wrath of Kings and Princes
3. The Pride of Blood and Empire
Omnibus available at Amazon & BN
The Ossian Chronicles is a trilogy of standalone fantasy novels. The narratives follow the fortunes of the royal family of Osland through civil wars and through foreign conflicts with their neighbors. The series is centered around the rise of the Ossian Empire.
The gods delight in fighting their wars through humankind, often ensnaring the unsuspecting in their schemes as they fight for supremacy in the heavens. Sorcerers are those men enslaved to the dark gods, siphoning their power to accomplish their will on the earth. Sages serve the God Eom as prophets and mages, guiding the kings of Osland through the dangers of war and politics.
Each novel (not the prequel) in the series is inspired by one of Shakespeare’s plays.
* * * * *
The Call of Sage and Kindred
The Ossian Chronicles, Prequel
25,000 words: Epic High Fantasy
No longer available for sale.
Email request and I’ll send you the file.
The people are sore oppressed by invaders.
A God calls a deliverer to challenge the mighty.
He must walk the path of death to win freedom.
Before the wars of Osland and Vistgard spoken of in The Ossian Chronicles, the Os were a peaceful people living on the frozen tundras north of the Nezzian Empire. But then the Vist came, migrating westward from their ancestral home, enslaving the Os before them.
Arest is a farmer who has lost everything to the Vist invaders. He’s lived for years with the guilt of knowing that he should be dead with his family. The gods his kin worship have clearly abandoned the Os to support the Vist, and there is no hope but that Arest will soon join his family in death.
But it is at this point that the forgotten god, Eom, decides to enter the eternal wars of gods and men, taking the Os as his people. He chooses the despondent Arest as his first sage, renaming him Erstred, and sends him to gather the Os for a journey to a new home.
But nobody will believe Erstred that he has been visited by a god. Worse still, the perilous journey he wishes the Os to undertake will lead them into the lands of the Nezzian Empire, home of the most feared and disciplined military in the world.
In a tale of personal growth and faith, Erstred must not only find the courage to do his god’s will but also the patience to deal with the conniving people he leads. And through all this, he is not even certain that Eom has the power to keep his many promises.
* * * * *
The Wars of Gods and Men
The Ossian Chronicles, Volume 1
110,000 words: Epic High Fantasy
He usurped the throne and waged civil war.
Barbarians attacked his exposed kingdom.
Pride could prove the death of a nation.
After two centuries of civil war, East and West Osland reach a peace accord that will see the young Western King Ayern wed the daughter of the Eastern monarch, Beyorn. But not everyone is happy that peace has finally come to the divided kingdom.
Eboric, general of the Eastern army, assassinates his king with the aid of his wife, the devious and treacherous Idonea. Together, they usurp Beyorn’s throne and reignite civil war. But the God of Osland is displeased, and he brings an army of barbarians against his people in order to force their repentance.
Kjar Kolrig, the leader of that barbarian army, is driven by his own lust for conquest, having succeeded where no man had before in unifying the scattered tribes of Vistgard. He sees Osland as weak and ripe for the taking, and so comes against Eboric with the greatest army ever to cross the Shalberg Mountains that divide the two lands.
Ayern lies imprisoned in a cell, tortured and relying on his God for the strength to survive another day. Eboric’s mind begins to fall apart beneath the weight of his crimes. Idonea turns to the dark gods, becoming a sorceress in order to purchase salvation for her people. Can any of them save a battered and broken land from the barbarian king who comes to devour it?
* * * * *
The Wrath of Kings and Princes
The Ossian Chronicles, Volume 2
110,000 words: Epic High Fantasy
He is the heir to the kingdom.
She is a shepherdess with a secret past.
A sorcerer is willing to kill both to gain vengeance.
Peace reigns at last in Osland, King Ayern unifying the long-divided land once again. But in twenty years since the last war, the Ossians have failed to pay attention to their enemies in Vistgard, where a simmering anger remains after their defeat in the heart of Osland.
Kjar Agger takes up his uncle Kolrig’s throne and looks at once to renew the struggles between Vistgard and Osland. He is a servant of dark gods, a sorcerer, a fact he has kept closely guarded until the time is right to reveal it. He knows that open war will not break Osland, and so he plots a much darker and sinister end for his foes.
Meanwhile, Childe Cern, son and heir of King Ayern, approaches adulthood. His father wishes him to marry, but Cern desires a military career above all else. His childhood friend, Kjar Agger, and he reunite at this pivotal moment in Ossian history.
As Agger attempts to manipulate his friend, Cern encounters a mysterious young shepherd woman, Marra, a lady far too learned and genteel to be the daughter of peasants living on the moors. As Cern’s affection for her grows, Agger seeks to use this secret romance to destroy Osland.
As Agger’s lies and deception begin to succeed where might of arms have failed, Cern struggles to unravel Marra’s mysterious past, for in her may lie the key to a lasting peace between Osland and Vistgard.
* * * * *
The Pride of Blood and Empire
The Ossian Chronicles, Volume 3
100,000 words: Epic High Fantasy
A fledgling empire faces war on two fronts.
The king struggles to unite disparate peoples.
He must forsake his conscience if he’s to survive.
The legendary King Ayern lies dead in Osland and his once head-strong son, Cern, must take up his father’s throne. His marriage to Marra has united Osland and much of Vistgard, but many in that barbaric land desire the death of all Ossians, despite Cern’s many overtures of friendship.
The warlord Sverd and his twin sister Svigi, a sorceress, seek to rekindle the old Vist alliances fashioned by Kjar Kolrig. They succeed in gathering enough men to drive the Ossians from Vistgard, but they fail to count on the resolution of King Cern to hold on to his kingdom’s recent gains.
But the Vist are not the only enemies Cern has to face in the infancy of his reign. The slumbering giant of the Nezzian Empire is stirring and seeks to reclaim its lost lands now occupied by the Ossians.
Even as Cern marches an army into Vistgard to defend his holdings there, the Nezzians launch the largest fleet in history across the narrow seas and attack a defenseless Osland. As his forces become stretched increasingly thin, Cern finds he has the strangest of allies in the sorceress Svigi, though whether he can live with the consequences of that union remains to be seen.
