Sword Fantasy

In the far future, unbeknownst to humankind, an apocalyptic war is brewing. Fearsome, vengeful Demons rage at the boundaries of the world, held at bay by a spell called the Forbidding. But now that barrier is dying. Evil is beginning to break through. And only the Chosen can banish the Demons back to their realm.

For a game, the gods have given the world 12 Swords of Power so that they might be amused as the nations battle for their possession. But Vulcan the Smith has had his own little joke: the Swords can kill the gods themselves. What started out as Divine Jest has become all too serious as the gods fight to recover the Swords, and mortals discover that the mantle of power is more delicious and more terrible than anything they could have imagined.

Tor Leonne - the heart of the Dominion of Annagar, where the games of state are about to become a matter of life and death - and where those who seek to seize the crown will be forced to league with a treacherously cunning ally.... Tor Leonne, ancestral seat of power, where Serra Diora Maria di'Marano - the most sought-after beauty in the land, a woman betrayed by all she holds dear - may strike the first blow to change the future of the Dominion and Empire alike....

Descending into darkness, about to be overwhelmed by evil, those people still free are powerless to stop the coming dawn of a savage new world, while Richard faces the guilt of knowing that he must let it happen. Alone, he must bear the weight of a sin he dare not confess to the one person he loves…and has lost. Join Richard and Kahlan in the concluding novel of one of the most remarkable and memorable journeys ever written. It started with one rule, and will end with the rule of all rules, the rule unwritten, the rule unspoken since the dawn of history.

The Baron pulled his sword out of its scabbard. “You’re going to die, Matthew. In a random village in a world you do not belong. You will die never knowing who you are or where you came from. I will take your women and feed your corpse to my wolf.” Matthew is thrown out of an airplane above a forest with no memory of who he is or where he came from. As he tries to figure out what is going on, he quickly realises things are horribly wrong. There are monsters lurking about in the forest. There are women who want to enslave him. There is a Baron who wants to kill him and take his wife ...

He stands between two worlds, a savior and a destroyer to both. Dragons and aegres will fall. But one can turn the tide. One who stands in the shadow of kings. Such has been seen by the doomed. The weight of ten thousand lives and all the realm besides now sits on Joran's shoulders. So much has already been sacrificed to bring him to the ancient doors of Drakanan, where he might take on the mantle of Dragon Rider and usher in a new age of heroes. But a time of dragons is not all that has been seen…

In the year 2022, gamers rejoice as Sword Art Online - a VRMMORPG (virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game) like no other - debuts, allowing players to take full advantage of the ultimate in gaming technology: NerveGear, a system that allows users to completely immerse themselves in a wholly realistic gaming experience. But when the game goes live, the elation of the players quickly turns to horror as they discover that, for all its amazing features, SAO is missing one of the most basic functions of any MMORPG - a logout button.

Arrogant. Scornful. Full of pride. Darnuir, prince of dragons, cares nothing for the damage he's doing to the faltering alliance against the Shadow. He thinks himself invincible - right up till a mortal wound forces him to undergo a dangerous rebirthing spell, leaving him a helpless babe in human hands.

After helping my steady dragon Zav with his family problems, I thought life would get back to normal. As normal as it can be when you’re a hit woman responsible for hunting down bad guys. That was before a strange artifact showed up in a bog and turned my ancient dwarven sword into a magical beacon. Now, my enemies can sense it from hundreds of miles away. Usually, fighting off opportunists wouldn’t be a problem (they don’t call me Ruin Bringer without reason), but even I can only handle so many attacks at a time.

“I might as well disappear into a black hole," he thought aloud. And in the next instant, that is precisely what happened to Carter Quinn. Summoned to a fantasy world by a religious sect at the behest of their elven queen, Carter Quinn finds himself suddenly thrust into a tense struggle for power. As the “world-hopper,” Carter holds a mystique he’s not entirely sure he can live up to. But when the voluptuous blonde elf Queen Seema offers him a new life full of wealth, women, and the title of king, he doesn’t take long to give his answer. Her plan? Unite the elven realms under a ...

“A blacksmith’s spark, a dragon’s flame … and the fate of the realm in one young man’s hands!” Thomas Carter always believed forging steel was his path to a steady life—until the fire in his master’s forge sputtered out and shadowy beasts attacked his hometown. Now he’s charged with protecting the only place he’s ever called home. But when a hidden relic emerges—a dagger pulsing with ancient symbols—Thomas unearths more than just faint magic. He sparks the interest of a deadly cult and a mythic dragon believed to be extinct. Desperate to save Graystone and re-ignite ...

The most reckless and fierce of the MacLeod brothers, Quinn is a prisoner of the god inside him, tormented by his inability to save his family from slaughter. His fury governs him, and day by day he loses himself to the darkness in his soul. But Quinn has a profound yearning for a woman's love. . . . Raised by Druids, the achingly beautiful Marcail is as spellbinding as the ancient magic that surges through her body. To Quinn, she is the most desirable woman he has ever known. But to his enemy Deirdre, she is the perfect bait to lure Quinn into her trap.

Ruin Reborn unravels the harrowing progression of a monstrous being whose dark legacy spans two thousand years. Once a creature of unrelenting violence, Ruin ravaged a frozen world shrouded in eternal darkness until a fateful bargain with a cunning lich resulted in his death and rebirth in an unfamiliar universe. Trapped in the fragile body of a human slave, Ruin finds himself a cog in a cruel and unjust empire on the brink of wars it cannot win. Amid the squalor of slave pens, on the bloody sands of the arena, and in the camaraderie forged in the crucible of battle, a spark of self-...

This series presents Clark Ashton Smith's fiction chronologically, based on composition rather than publication. Editors Scott Connors and Ron Hilger have compared original manuscripts, various typescripts, published editions, and Smith's notes and letters in order to prepare a definitive set of texts. The Maze of the Enchanter includes, in chronological order, all of his stories from The Mandrakes (February, 1933) to The Flower-Women (May, 1935). This volume also features an introduction and extensive notes on each story.

Holt and Ash saved the kingdom of Feorlen against all odds. Now they are outcasts, alone on an impossible quest to unite the Elder Dragons. But they are children playing in a game of Dragon Lords. Trapped between the riders, servants of Sovereign, and the scourge, even their luck cannot last forever. Their only hope is to advance their bond by any means necessary. In Feorlen, Talia faces a world unaccepting of a rider queen. Her councilors will not heed her warnings of Sovereign. Foreign powers threaten war and bloodshed. Pleas sent to rider headquarters fall on deaf ears.

I just wanted to ease the suffering of Arimus, a gryphon blinded in combat. He’d lost his first rider, and his will to live. But when he forges a new psychic link with me to be his replacement rider, it brands me as “an affront to the gods” for daring to ride an avatar of the god of man.

It's Ruwen’s Ascension Day, and he finally dies for the first time. His newly revived body can learn spells and abilities for the class given him by the Goddess Uru, and dying is no longer permanent. Ruwen’s high intelligence makes becoming a Mage inevitable. With his new powers, he will locate his parents and clear their family name. But nothing goes as Ruwen imagined, and when a rival God tries to kill Ruwen shortly after his disastrous Ascension, his focus turns from his future to just surviving.

He was meant to guard the light—until the darkness answered first. Milo is training to become a Warden, sworn protector to a priestess he’s destined to wed. But as rebellion flares against a king who’s forsaken his people, Milo is torn between duty and the firebrand ideals of justice, freedom, and revolution—championed by his closest friend. The Ember Pact demands change. The Tally enforces order. Trapped between rising chaos and the temple’s sacred code, Milo walks a razor-thin path—one shadowed by rivalries, temptation, and a forbidden power no Warden should possess. It feeds ...

On the eve of her 16th birthday, Candle Enys discovers her brother has sold her soul to a demon. Scared for her life, Candle runs away. But the mountains of Hanternos are dangerous, especially for soft-hearted girls who have never learned to fight. At dawn and at dusk spirits crawl from the shadows, searching for bodies to steal. Evil stirs in the deep caves, and the wind smells of black powder. A chance meeting with an ancient being sets her on the path to power she never knew she possessed. It also places a target on her back.

It is 200 years since the deity known as the Absolved went mad and destroyed the Kingdom of Alnachim, transforming it into the Execration, a blasted wasteland filled with nameless terrors. For decades, desperate souls have made pilgrimage to the centre of this cursed land to seek the Mad God’s favour, their fate always unknown. Now a veteran warrior known only as Pilgrim, armed with a fabled blade inhabited by the soul of a taunting demon, must join with six others to make the last journey to the heart of the Execration.