Farlander
An exciting debut fantasy
The Heart of the World is a land in strife. For fifty years the Holy Empire of Mann, an empire and religion born from a nihilistic urban cult, has been conquering nation after nation. Their leader, Holy Matriarch Sasheen, ruthlessly maintains control through her Diplomats, priests trained as subtle predators.
The Mercian Free Ports are the only confederacy yet to fall. Their only land link to the southern continent, a long and narrow isthmus, is protected by the city of Bar-Khos. For ten years now, the great southern walls of Bar-Khos have been besieged by the Imperial Fourth Army.
Ash is a member of an elite group of assassins, the Roshun – who offer protection through the threat of vendetta. Forced by his ailing health to take on an apprentice, he chooses Nico, a young man living in the besieged city of Bar-Khos. At the time, Nico is hungry, desperate, and alone in a city that finds itself teetering on the brink.
When the Holy Matriarch’s son deliberately murders a woman under the protection of the Roshun; he forces the sect to seek his life in retribution. As Ash and his young apprentice set out to fulfil the Roshun orders – their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports... into bloodshed and death.
“Completely absorbing. Once I was into it, I just couldn’t put it down. I’m looking forward to the sequel.” – Glen Cook
“In Farlander, Col Buchanan weaves a tapestry of
characters embodying youthful inexperience, military adventurism, jaded
professionalism and wisdom, and the excesses of temporally expressed
religious fanaticism into a fast-moving novel that, for all its fantasy
elements, explosively addresses the universal questions facing any
society.” – L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
“Farlander is until the
last page a well-done Novel of Education; since the education is that of an assassin, it's an exciting read as well as a thought-provoking one. Only at the conclusion does Col Buchanan show who was really being
educated, which makes this a truly exceptional book.” – Dave Drake
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Col Buchanan
Col Buchanan was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in 1973. From an early age he turned to reading and writing fantastical works to escape his troubles. In school he was the quiet dreamer who always sought out the back of the classroom. Later, in his stretches of work as a copywriter, he would be the quiet dreamer who always sought out the back of the office.
Having strayed from the beaten track for most of his life, at times Col has found himself in retreat in the mountains of Mourne, homeless in Belfast, lost in a Zen monastery, and scratching graffiti as a guest of the local constabulary. The one constant in his life has been his love of writing. It was writing that lead him to his adopted home of Lancaster, England, where he gained a First in Creative Writing & Religious Studies at the University of Cumbria.
Heart of the World
Also known as The Farlander novels.
Heart of the World consists of four books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
