Behold my Dragonkin Legacy!

“The worldbuilding is superb...[and] the characters are just as memorable...an enthralling epic teeming with valor, camaraderie, and searing battles.” – Kirkus Reviews

My full debut Epic Fantasy series, The Dragonkin Legacy, is now available on Amazon. Yes, I know it only shows up as Kindle. Relax. Come June 1st the Paperbacks will be available, books one and two and omnibus, with a third on the way. Come to think of it, Book One, The Last War, is available NOW.

 

Editorial Reviews 

"The Dragonkin Legacy by Ian E.S. Adler is an epic fantasy adventure that blends historical fiction with mythical elements. I loved the world-building and the intense action. The narrative style was perfect to keep the pace of the story, keep the attention of readers on the plot, and complement the development of the characters. Adler’s vivid descriptions bring the world of Cynnahu to life, making it easy for readers to immerse themselves in the story. I loved how the story explored topics like the consequences of war and how it affects countless lives. While the plot is intricate and involves numerous subplots, Adler ties everything together in a satisfying conclusion. The storytelling is both rich and immersive, drawing readers into a world that is as enchanting as it is dangerous. Each member of the Team of Five is well-crafted, with distinct personalities and arcs that evolve as the narrative unfolds. Sakura’s quest for vengeance adds a raw emotional edge, while Myrriden’s struggles with fatherhood and duty provide a clear contrast. Was there ever a moment in the story that felt lacking? Never! The ending was perfect and made me love the story more. Highly recommended!" - Rabia Tanveer (starred review for Readers' Favorite)

"A fantasy novel replete with magic, lore, and epic stakes, The Last War by Ian E.S. Adler is a classic questing adventure in the richly imagined world of Nim-Semalf. The Order of mages and the entire archipelago they protect faces invasion by the naga, catapulting five unlikely companions into the fiery crucible of destiny. Amidst ancient riddles, embattled dragon shrines, fearless storm swords, and the mysterious motives of Archmages, the fast-moving plot is enthralling, as is this new realm taking shape before readers' eyes. Built on an elaborate mythology and supported by a classic fantasy plot of ultimate victory vs. complete annihilation, this first book in The Cynnahu Saga is a knockout start to a new series." - Self-Publishing Review (SPR) (starred review)

"Adler has built a complex and detailed fantasy world full of adventure and excitement that keeps readers turning the pages. The author provides explanations of what people perform in their jobs that go along with their titles, such as Dragon Guardians, Isle Masters, Loremasters, and Mages, to name a few. A strong and ideal cast of characters who are dealing with grief, sacrifice, tricky interactions, and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds populate the story. The characters also undertake risks, whether it is being involved in battles where magic plays a part or in trying to overcome outside forces and internal challenges when it comes to solving the secret code in ancient writings... The Last War is a gripping fantasy story that pulls readers into a magical world with nonstop action and suspense that revolves around an armed confrontation of epic proportions." - Feathered Quill Reviews

"Adler created a rich and imaginative world populated with interesting and well-developed characters encompassing the depth of their history and mythology. Fans of the fantasy genre will be enthralled by the level of detail and visual delights that bring this story to life, pulling the reader right into the action...focus[ing] not only on war and action but the wisdom and strategy the young characters, Emrys and Sakura, must face when solving puzzles and challenges. The author invests much of the narration with dialogue, creating a colorful plot and development throughout the book. This technique gives the characters more dimension so that we understand their motives, while the storyline never falters and will keep you turning one page after the next. While this action-packed, strategic tale follows what many readers may find to be a familiar fantasy storyline, it's a rich, vibrant tale with unique characters and a fantastic world will keep you looking forward to the next installment." - Literary Titan (starred review and winner of the Literary Titan Book Award)

I have started Orphan's Quest, the first of Terry Ironwood's The Great Forget Series

At the author's request I have started Orphan's Quest, the first of Terry Ironwood's The Great Forget Series.

An orphan with untold power. A wise wizard. A princess who is thankfully far brighter than her idiot brother and father, and an ancient evil rising. Sounds like a classic Epic Fantasy in the Tolkien tradition, which, by the way, is exactly what Ironwood says it is (both in the intro to the book and to me personally), which makes it hard to resist. Yet I foresee more than a few surprises since the back cover begins with "Long ago, a mysterious event known as The Great Forget ravaged Earth. Magic was born." The Great Forget. Now if that does not invite mysteries and revelations by the dozen I do not know what does.

(Naturally the Official Book Review will come after I finish the book.)

Quote of the month

"Fantasy can provide us with simple entertainment and escapism, but it goes deeper than that. It provides different perspectives, explores themes such as the power of friendship, love, and honour, evokes a sense of wonder, lets us partake in adventures we can only dream about, and teaches us valuable truths to apply in our own lives. More importantly, it allows us to imagine." - Terry Ironwood

I finished Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White

"It is the duty of those with power to protect those without." - Sòng Méi

I finished Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White, the second book of the Song of the Last Kingdom Duology by Amélie Wen Zhao.

"Yin and yang. Good and evil. Great and terrible. Two sides of the same coin, Lián'ér, and somewhere in the center of it all lies power. The solution is to find the balance between them," once said Dé’zì, grandmaster of School of the White Pines. A balance Lan and Zen, creation and ruin, found on the razor-thin, razor-sharp, path between Demon Gods and Elantian colonizers, past and present, love and hate, morality and necessity, truth and lies, betrayal and reunification. A race along that devastating path to a battle where foes hereditary and foreign clashed that returned the Four to the sky and made the Last Kingdom what it was meant to be all along: A land of Ten Thousand Flowers. Though the price, as I feared, was high.

All marking the end of an absolutely stellar and original Fantasy that has all the breathtaking elegance, beauty, heart, and cultural distinction of Chinese calligraphy. So much so that I felt it ended too quickly, for there was so much more of the Last Kingdom to see, to say nothing of the lands beyond the Emaran Desert and across the Sea of Heavenly Radiance. More to learn about practitioning, metalwork magic, and the Clans and gods and other entities who populate this amazing world. I can only only hope for a sequel someday, for even as gods have endings so does that lead to new beginnings. In the meantime though, for this ending, I can only now offer the same salute as given to the legendary heroes who once walked the lakes and rivers of the Last Kingdom:

Kingdom before live, honor into death Sòng Lián & Xan Temurezen (may the red thread of fate forever bind you), Yeshin Nora Dilaya, Shàn'jūn & Chó Tài, Master Nur, Nameless Master, and all the Clans who fought a won a land where your differing customs and heritages can be celebrated in peace and freedom.

"Blood draws more blood. Power desires more power. A vicious cycle cannot be broken. Unless it is destroyed." - Xan Alatüi, First Shaman of the Eternal Sky and the Great Earth, Classic of Gods and Demons

News gathers into a gale in the sails of the red ship. Not the four winds, but the fifth.

Music, when Writers are Bards

It is no secret that song and poetry are close cousins; indeed, song is effectively rhyming poetry that has been put, or was made to fit, music. That being said, poets, novelists, playwrights, singers, and musicians have different names for a reason. No one would call Taylor Swift a poet, for example, anymore than they would call Sir Arthur Conon Doyle a singer.

But are the boundaries between song and literature so firm?

William Shakespeare is called "the Bard" due to his masterful plays which are weddings between stellar stories and sophisticated yet simultaneously evocative wording. A union of skill so great that Early Modern English is also called Shakespearean English. What I am getting at, however, is his title: Bard. In ancient times Celtic bards were poets, musicians, and storytellers whose sacred task was the preservation history, mythology, and genealogies through oral tradition. Bards often served as advisors to kings and chiefs, using their poetry and music to praise or satirize rulers, ensuring their influence in society. Poets, musicians, and storytellers. All three. Alas, the Bardic profession died long ago. Yet some authors keep it alive by writing songs for their books while some musicians and singers do the same by playing those songs or making songs out of time-honored poems.

“There was Eru, the One, who in Arda is called Ilúvatar; and he made first the Ainur, the Holy Ones, that were the offspring of his thought, and they were with him before aught else was made. And he spoke to them, propounding to them themes of music; and they sang before him, and he was glad. But for a long while they sang only each alone, or but few together, while the rest hearkened; for each comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

Any who have read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings know that J.R.R. Tolkien designates many pages to song. Whereas other authors typically write something along the lines of "_______ sung a song telling the realm's founder and founding" along with maybe a few lyrics, Tolkien actually writes and includes in full the songs his characters sing. Better yet, he wrote songs in the Elvish language he invented.

Remember that Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. Which in regular English means a renowned scholar and professor. One who poured his love, his fascination and delight with and of languages into his legendarium - his songs and languages bringing Middle-earth to life almost as much the story itself.

Thus it is that more modern singers have brought his songs to life, or created ones of their own: such as I See Fire - a song written by Ed Sheeran for end credits of one of The Hobbit movies and, here, performed by the internationally acclaimed Grammy-nominated all-female Irish musical ensemble Celtic Woman.

Where music and literature meet is a harmonious place indeed, and other authors have also created songs and verses for their works, two examples being Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey.

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock" and is part his novel Through the Looking-Glass, sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"It seems very pretty," she said when she had finished it, "but it's rather hard to understand!" (You see she didn't like to confess, even to herself, that she couldn't make it out at all.) "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only I don't exactly know what they are! However, somebody killed something: that's clear, at any rate." -  Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

Jabberwocky is considered one of the greatest nonsense poems written in English, for it gave English the words "chortle" and "galumphing." That is correct, these two words did not exist until Lewis Carroll made them up for Jabberwocky. Like riddles, I consider Nonsense verse a sadly ignored poetic form in education - which is odd seeing how titanic, influential and beloved a literary figure Dr. Seuss is. It fosters creativity while challenges the writers and readers alike to make sense of the playful, whimsical language.