Showing results by author "Mitchell Hogan" in All Categories

In a world devastated by a series of cataclysms over millennia, where the followers of different gods vie for ascendancy, mankind carves out a precarious existence among the remnants of a desolated past. Cities and civilizations are built atop mysterious and ofttimes menacing ruins, and the unforgiving wilderness beyond is filled with inhuman creatures and races from before the dawn of history. Sorcery is seen by some as a gift of the gods and by others as their curse. And the demon-ravaged past has all but been forgotten.

Anasoma, jewel of the Mahruse Empire, has fallen. As Caldan and his companions flee the city, horrors from the time of the Shattering begin to close in. With Miranda's mind broken by forbidden sorcery, Caldan is forced to disobey the most sacrosanct laws of the Protectors if he is to have any chance of healing her. But when one of the emperor's warlocks arrives to take control of him, he begins to suspect his burgeoning powers may be more of a curse than a blessing.

When Caldan’s parents are brutally slain, he is raised by monks and taught the arcane mysteries of sorcery. Vowing to discover for himself who his parents really were, and what led to their violent end, he is thrust into the unfamiliar chaos of city life. With nothing to his name but a pair of mysterious heirlooms and a handful of coins, he must prove his talent to earn an apprenticeship with a guild of sorcerers. But he soon learns the world outside the monastery is a darker place than he ever imagined, and his treasured sorcery has disturbing depths. As a shadowed evil manipulates the unwary and forbidden powers are unleashed, Caldan is plunged into an age-old conflict that brings the world to the edge of destruction.

I was born when the world was a glorious place, but my parents were betrayed and murdered. I was raised by my sister in fear and poverty instead. That was merely the beginning. I lived through untold death and destruction when the old world was shattered, when creations turned against creators and a new evil rose to assert power. I fought back against the new order and broke humankind free from the shackles of terror that enslaved them. I discovered secrets beyond the lore of all other sorcerers, knowledge that ensures my people will not lack a shepherd on their long march through eternity.

Seventeen years have passed since the Necromancer Queen Talia was overthrown and slain, and her capital city destroyed by the Knights of the Order of Eternal Vigilance. Anskar DeVantte, raised in the sacred disciplines of the Order, is now ready to face the brutal initiation trials to become a consecrated knight-sorcerer. But the further Anskar rises in the ranks the more his faith wavers. As troubling powers awaken within him, a schism grows between Anskar and his hallowed Order, and he draws the hungry gaze of the vanquished queen’s fanatical followers.

With the Order knights of Branil’s Burg defeated, the victorious Niyandrian rebels bend the knee to Anskar, their Melesh-Eloni—“godling”—and the true heir to the throne. But despite their victory, time is running out. Anskar’s powers are unpredictable, and to some, terrifying. Already, the mainlanders plan vengeance: An armada is being prepared, not for colonization this time, but for slaughter. And the ever-looming spirit of Queen Talia still seeks to return from the dead to begin a new necromantic empire, with her as the ever-living ruler.

In Niyas, the new Seneschal plans to use Anskar to further the Church’s aims and grind the Niyandrians and their culture to dust. But having thrown off the shackles of both the Church and his mother Queen Talia, Anskar is no longer a hapless pawn. Driven to seek the final component to complete the Armor of Divinity, he falls in with the Niyandrian rebels and forges his own path.

In the wake of the rebel Niyandrians' abduction attempt, Anskar DeVantte, now a knight-inferior of the Order of Eternal Vigilance, has set sail with the Grand Master, bound for the mother house in Sansor. Anskar has already begun to suspect that the Order's holy convictions aren't as pure as they appear, and his doubts are confirmed when the ship detours to the slave markets of Atya. As the Grand Master gathers an expedition to retrieve an ancient artifact from an unearthed ruin, Anskar finds himself torn.

Sent with a contingent of knights to reinforce the Thousand Lakes Kingdom against the aggression of the normally peaceable Soreshi, Anskar DeVantte learns that the Necromancer Queen Talia’s reach is longer than he could have believed. Cajoled into procuring the components of the Armor of Divinity that will bring Talia back from the realm of the dead, Anskar must put her demands to one side when the real threat facing the kingdom is revealed.

In the bustling capital city of the Mahruse Empire, Felicienne Shyrise spends her days as a talented investigator, taking on stolen goods and missing person cases and the occasional murder the city guard are too incompetent - or too lazy - to resolve. During the nights she hones her skills playing Dominion, a board game almost as complicated as life itself. She dreams of making a name for herself and becoming the richest woman in the Empire.

In a battle of armies and sorcerers, empires will fall. After young Caldan's parents were slain, a group of monks raised the boy and initiated him into the arcane mysteries of sorcery. But when the Mahruse Empire was attacked and the lives of his friends hung in the balance, he was forced to make a dangerous choice. Now, as two mighty empires face off in a deadly game of supremacy, potent sorcery and creatures from legend have been unleashed. To turn the tide of war and prevent annihilation, Caldan must learn to harness his fearsome and forbidden magic.

Outcast and exiled, the demon Tarrik Nal-Valim has long been forgotten by the world of humans. At least, so he thinks. But when he is summoned as a last resort by a desperate sorcerer, it seems as though his past has caught up with him. The sorcerer is Serenity “Ren” Branwen, the daughter of Tarrik’s former master - and friend. Though she seems cold, driven, and ruthless, Tarrik can tell Ren has her back against a wall, and he is compelled by ferocious powers to obey her.

Years have passed since the demon Tarrik and his master, the sorcerer Ren, destroyed the servants of Samal and suppressed the very essence of the vile lord. The cost was greater than even a demon could have imagined. But in the realms of demons and humans, no evil can be fully controlled, and no one’s true fate can be foretold. Including Tarrik’s. He’s been summoned once more, now by the vengeful Linriel, who’s fallen in with one of Samal’s ravaged survivors.

Niklaus, master swordsman, has not aged a day since being chosen by his mercurial goddess. A slave to her will, he moves from one cryptic mission to the next in the hope of ascending to become her equal. But even a man who has lived for centuries can sometimes find himself out of his depth. When Niklaus is sent to kill a sorcerer of the Tainted Cabal, overconfidence leads to a fatal mistake, and neither experience nor skill with a blade can prevail against the forces unleashed against him.

To Inquisitor Angel Xia, it was just another corporate killing on a backwater planet. But as the bodies begin to pile up and she finds herself a target, she realizes she's stepped on one toe too many. Barely escaping attempts on her life by powerful agents with seemingly limitless reach and influence, Angel senses even her co-Inquisitors can't be trusted. But as the web tightens, she receives a cryptic message from a computer program claiming to be a little girl in desperate need of her help.

A woman transformed by the blood of demons. Deadly beyond reckoning. Raven was once a member of the Grim Hand, a group of demonically altered assassins - until she staged her own death and began a new life free from brutality and murder. But some secrets refuse to stay buried, and the past is reluctant to loosen its grip on those who hide from it.

Niklaus du Plessis, master swordsman, hasn’t aged a day since being chosen by his goddess. A slave to her will, he moves from one cryptic mission to the next in the hope of pleasing her and perhaps ascending to become her equal.

After centuries of dancing to his goddess’s tune, Niklaus meets the priestess Callis Drethna, and at her urging they embark on a quest together to find an ancient artifact. As they face mortal dangers, Niklaus’s affection for Callis grows, and he begins to wonder if there is more to life than unquestioned devotion.

Dopo la morte dei genitori, brutalmente uccisi per una ragione apparentemente oscura, il giovane Caldan viene allevato da una comunità di monaci che lo iniziano agli arcani misteri della magia. Ma una volta cresciuto, afflitto da domande sul proprio passato, decide di scoprire la verità sui suoi genitori. La ricerca lo porterà oltre le mura del monastero, nella caotica vita della città di Anasoma.

Anasoma, die mächtigste Stadt des Kaiserreichs, ist gefallen, und zum zweiten Mal in seinem Leben muss der junge Magier Caldan alles hinter sich lassen und fliehen. Gemeinsam mit seinen Gefährten stellt er sich den Gefahren einer Welt, der ein schrecklicher Krieg bevorsteht und in der das Böse aus Legenden plötzlich lebendig zu werden scheint. Doch es ist vor allem Miranda, um deren Leben Caldan bangt. Ein verbotener Zauber droht sie zu töten. Caldan weiß, dass er sich seiner außergewöhnlichen Begabung stellen muss, um Miranda - und das gesamte Kaiserreich - zu retten.

Caldan ist zehn Jahre alt, als seine Eltern von den Schergen des Kaisers ermordet werden. Er selbst entkommt seinen Verfolgern und findet in einem Kloster Unterschlupf, wo er von den Brüdern in den Grundlagen der Arkanen Magie unterrichtet wird. Doch dann verletzt er Jahre später bei einer Prügelei unwillentlich einen Mitschüler und wird, mit nichts als ein paar Münzen in der Tasche, hinausgeworfen. Von nun an muss er sich alleine durchschlagen - in einer Welt, die noch immer von den Mördern seiner Eltern beherrscht wird.