Battlemage
David Gemmell Morningstar Award nominee 2016.
'I can command storms, summon fire and unmake stone. Animals have nothing interesting to say and no one can see the future, because it has not been written,' growled Balfruss. 'It's dangerous to meddle with things you don't understand.'
WHEN YOU FIGHT MAGIC WITH MAGIC, NOTHING IS CERTAIN.
Balfruss is a battlemage, one of a vanishing breed, sworn to fight and die for a country that fears and despises him.
Vargus is a soldier, and while mages shoot lightning from the walls of his city, he's down in the frontlines getting blood on his blade.
Talandra is a princess and her father's spymaster, but the war may force her to take up a greater responsibility, and make the greatest sacrifice of all.
Known for their unpredictable, dangerous power, society has left battlemages untrained and shunned. But when a force unlike anything ever imagined attacks their home, the few remaining magic users must go to war - to save those who fear them most, and herald in a new age of peace, built upon the corpses of their enemies.
Stephen Aryan
"I’m a lifelong fan of fantasy and science fiction. It started with The Hobbit, The Belgariad, the Earthsea books, the Shannara books and then David Gemmell, who was a huge influence on me and my writing. For most of that time I have also been reading comics. It began with superhero comics from DC and Marvel, but now I read comics across many genres and from a wide variety of comic book publishers.
I’m a writer and podcaster. I’ve previously written a comic book column and comic book reviews for Tor.com, developed intellectual property into comic book pitches for a media company, and self published a superhero comic. Since 2007 I have been co-hosting a comics and geek culture podcast. We recently moved networks to Geek Syndicate, renamed ourselves, Grouchy Old Geeks and rebooted our numbers. I have also spoken on panels at comic book conventions about comics and podcasting. I’m also working on several comic book projects.
The Age of Darkness
The Age of Darkness consists of three primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.