The Black Guard

(Hardback)

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The launch of an heroic fantasy saga set in the lands of Ro, an epic landscape of mountain fortresses, vast grasslands, roiling ocean and slumbering gods.

The Duke of Canarn is dead, executed by the King's decree. The city lies in chaos, its people starving, sickening, and tyrannized by the ongoing presence of the King's mercenary army. But still hope remains: the Duke's children, the Lord Bromvy and Lady Bronwyn, have escaped their father's fate.

Separated by enemy territory, hunted by the warrior clerics of the One God, Bromvy undertakes to win back the city with the help of the secretive outcasts of the Darkwald forest, the Dokkalfar. The Lady Bronwyn makes for the sanctuary of the Grass Sea and the warriors of Ranen with the mass of the King's forces at her heels. And in the mountainous region of Fjorlan, the High Thain Algenon Teardrop launches his Dragon Fleet against the Red Army. Brother wars against brother in this, the epic first volume of the long war.

Reviews

Martin meets Lovecraft... Fun and refreshingly direct' * SciFiNow *
Interesting and enticing, deftly sidesteps fantasy cliche and thrusts you towards the next instalment * SFX *
The Black Guard has been described as "Martin meets Lovecraft", and doesn't disappoint on either count. With bleak personal stories of loss and hardship, wars between rival nations and a plot to resurrect a dead god, the novel is packed with action and intrigue, 7/10' * Fantasy Faction *

Author Bio

A. J. Smith spent twelve years devising The Long War cycle. When not living in the Lands of Ro, he works in secondary education.