Kingdoms of Magic: A new Fantasy epic series

 

Kingdoms of Magic:

I am returning to my roots.  I began my writing career when I typed a four novel epic fantasy series called Cathexis (here is a link where you can the Cathexis series, including the first one in the series for free!  Cathexis).  Now, after writing 21 novels, I am returning to traditional fantasy with my new epic series, Kingdoms of Magic.

However, this time I am tackling a much larger story, over many more novels.  All total, I plan (at least) sixteen novels in this epic.  However, there are some interesting facets to how I am approaching this monster series.  Frist off, I know how annoying it can be as a reader when a story is many books long and it is not finished.   You have no idea how long the author will take between books, or when it will be concluded.  For that very reason, I tend to wait to read a series until all of the books are completed.

With Kingdoms of Magic, this will not be an issue!  Each book is a self-contained story with a climax.  That means, no cliff hanger endings or stores that just stop in the middle, waiting to continue in the next book.  You may safely read each book when it comes out.   Now, I will tell you that all the books tell a much larger story in the end, but that should not get in the way of each book having a clear ending to that piece of the story. 

Let me give you some examples.  Let’s use J.R.R. Tolkien.  He wrote The Hobbit, which is a stand-alone book with a conclusion. Now, that story led to the Lord of the Rings, but that was a separate story, even though it added to the bigger story of both.  Now, in Lord of the Rings, the three novels in that series were connected without a climax for each one.  You could have just glued them together into one big book.  That is what I do not want to do with Kingdoms of Magic.  Each book in this series will be more like the difference between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  Each has its ending, all work together for a larger story.

However, it gets a little more complicated.

Unlike The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo’s story and Frodo’s story were at different periods of time, some of the Kingdoms of Magic stories will take place simultaneously!  Now, not all novels in the series will do that.  So, I had to come up with a way for readers to know which books happen at the same time, and which in different periods of the world.  My solution was to group them by a ‘Cycle and Age’.  A Cycle is ten years, and an Age is a major change to the world.  Therefore, an Age could have any number of Cycles in it, but each Cycle is always ten years long.

So, for example, in the 10^th cycle of the 6^th Age, I plan to write four novels that all take place at the same time.  In fact, certain characters may show up between the novels, and certain scenes could be in more than one, though they will be seen from a different perspective.   Therefore, you may read the four novels that take place in the same time period in any order you choose! 

The only real rule is that you read all the novels in the earlier Cycle before moving onto the next Cycle, which will always be later along the timeline.

It may sound complex, but it is easy.  Just read all the novels marked in the title as taking place in the 10^th Cycle of the 6^th Age before reading any novels from the 11^th Cycle of the 6^th Age.  And, once you are done with those, read any novels in the 1^st Cycle of the 7^th Age, in any order.

Each novel, regardless of which Cycle or Age it is in will still be a standalone story, with a unique climax, yet they will also all work together to tell a much larger story in the end.

OK, so now all I have to do is write this beast.   To that end, I have already finished the first novel, Wizard's Weapon, which takes place in the 10^th Cycle of the 6^th Age.  I am currently working on the second novel from that same period, called Baneful Wizardry.   Once I finish that one, I will move on to the other two novels from this same period, which are Doomed Crusade and The Witch’s Curse.

Only when all four of these novels set in the 10^th Cycle of the 6^th Age are complete will I publish all four.  Readers may then read them, in any order, while I work on the next set of novels from the 11^th Cycle of the 6^th Age.  I am waiting to publish them all at once because as I write one, it may affect one or more of the others since there are crossover events in the stories.

For more info on this new series , click this link: Kingdoms of Magic

Meanwhile, here is the map of Cratera (click on the map to go to a larger version with some zoom capability)

I hope to have the first four novels in Kingdoms of Magic available for readers by the end of 2021.  Wish me luck!