Cirrus@Austlit

'A corrupted power stirs from beyond the grave. 

'The Necromancer Queen will rise again.

'Seventeen years have passed since the Necromancer Queen was overthrown and slain by a sacred order of knights. Raised in the sacred disciplines of the knights Order, Anskar prepares for the brutal initiation trials to become a consecrated knight-sorcerer.

'But as troubling powers awaken within him, a schism grows between Anskar and his hallowed Order. As he draws the hungry gaze of the vanquished queen’s fanatical followers, and pieces together the mysteries of his early life, he finds himself with a crucial choice to make:

'Remain loyal to the Order’s righteous mission, or control the dark powers growing within him.

'Either way, his destiny is steeped in war. The only question is, which side will he be on?

'An immersive new epic fantasy series from the Aurealis Award winning author of A Crucible of Souls.'

Source : publisher' blurb

'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.

'Linriel takes Tarrik, bound again to serve, on a journey to the harsh southern lands to find the source of Ren’s coveted powers, and there they discover a part of Tarrik’s past he thought had been lost forever. As old bindings more powerful than sorcery fetter him, Tarrik is drawn into an obsessive and insane mission to erase the demon lord Samal from existence forever. And only if he succeeds will he at last be freed from exile.

'As old threats are reborn, he must decide what sacrifices he’s willing to make and what risks he’s willing to take on the unforgiving road to redemption.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Outcast and exiled, the demon Tarrik Nal-Valim has long been forgotten by the world of humans. At least, so he thinks.

'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.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In a world devastated by a series of cataclysms, 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 outside 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.

'As a secret cabal schemes to awaken an evil thought defeated millennia ago, the lives of three unlikely heroes are fated to converge:

'Aldric, a veteran priest and sorcerer, who seeks acceptance from the church that shuns him. On the brink of their approval, he receives a mission that brings him face to face with a long-buried evil.

'Niklaus, master swordsman, and slave to his goddess, who plots to split the veil between life and death and ascend to become her equal.

'Kurio, the runaway daughter of a noble family, now turned to thievery, who stumbles across a disturbing secret that binds her future to infernal designs.

'Drawn toward a horrifying endgame by an unknown force, Aldric, Niklaus, and Kurio find themselves in a battle not only for their lives, but for the beliefs that have come to define them.

'A wrong decision, an overreaching ambition, or the failure of an already tormented faith, is all it will take to plunge mankind into an eternal dark.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Ten years before A Crucible of Souls…

'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 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.

'But when she’s roped into a murky investigation by a First Adjudicator to the immortal Emperor himself, her life is thrown into disarray. Will this be the perfect opportunity to showcase her skills and make valuable connections, or will her future now be in the hands of political powers that can never be denied?

'Working against her will, and afraid of the consequences of refusing the commission, she uncovers evidence that points to an attempt on the Emperor’s life. Felicienne rapidly finds herself a target, and must use her considerable wits to uncover the plot of an unseen enemy who always seems to be one step ahead of the game.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the epic, never-before-published conclusion to the series that began with the award-winning A Crucible of Souls, Mitchell Hogan combines the wonder of classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy with the grit of the modern masters to create something at once familiar and unique for readers of all ages. In this gritty and breathtaking conclusion to Mitchell Hogan's award-winning Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, a young sorcerer must learn to wield his extraordinary powers to defeat two warring empires. 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 is attacked, and the lives of his friends hang 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. But as he grows into his powers, the young sorcerer realizes that not all the monsters are on the other side.And though traps and pitfalls lie ahead, and countless lives are at stake, one thing is certain: to save his life, his friends, and his world, Caldan must risk all to defeat a sorcerer of immense power.Failure will doom the world. Success will doom Caldan.' (Publication summary)

'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. She insists she's being held prisoner by a major corporation, but is this just a trap to silence Angel...permanently?

'Now a fugitive with her life inextricably linked to the girl in the program, Angel is taken to extremes she never knew she was capable of, and to forgotten places at the edges of known space that hold the darkest secrets of humanity, and the greatest threat to its future.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'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, and that the enemies assailing the empire may be rivaled by even more sinister forces within.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'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…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.