Showing results by author "AJ Cooper" in All Categories

The cities of Eloesus are warring among themselves, as they have since the beginning. Locked in mistrust and rivalry, they fail to see the most powerful empire in the world setting the gears of invasion into motion. The King of Kings, padisha emperor of Fharas, has made his move to swallow them whole. Theron, hero of the city of Thénai, can only see a slim hope in an impossible task: uniting the fatally divided cities under one banner. No one has ever succeeded before. The second book of the Wind of Destiny series.

An evil not seen in hundreds of years has awakened in the highland nation of Badelgard. The Ulfr - the original inhabitants of the land whose evil was matched only by their power over death - stir from their barrows. The dead walk again at the command of an Ulfr witch. The fate of the High King and the possession of the High Throne grow more and more uncertain.

In ancient times, the dark god Kronos crafted weapons of war in his fiery lair. His worship has long been eradicated, his followers driven into hiding... and yet he remains... Creatures of shadow are crawling through the land of Eloesus... they seek one man above all else: Theron, upstanding citizen, master swordsman, and veteran of many wars. As he flees, doom is falling over the land: clouds of fire hover over the ancient city of Thenai and infernal names not spoken in thousands of years thunder from the mountaintops. A hero is needed. A wind of destiny is blowing, yet Theron is one false...

The day of battle has arrived, but the alliance of Eloesian cities is already evaporating. Theron, the hero whom the Oracle has called, is failing at his task. Against all this, a wind of destiny blows... A wind from prophecy's holy mount. The third book of the Wind of Destiny series.

The doors to the Temple of Amara are sealed shut, leaving citizens of Thenai to wonder what lies inside. Abroad, the war effort flags and in the city itself, unrest has begun to spread. In the middle of it all, the amazon Khloe attempts desperately to find a missing child and begins to suspect it has something to do with the temple's transformation. Far away, the hero Geon has almost completed his angelic metamorphosis. As his power grows, he swears an oath to restore Amara's priesthood. He ventures far from home to find the last surviving priestess, unaware that something is hunting him. ...

The city of Thénai and the military alliance it leads resurge from the brink of destruction to become more powerful than ever. The hero Theron, Thénai’s most famous citizen, has been gone for more than a decade, but rumors spread that his return is imminent, that he has set his heart against the city he once loved, and that he has vowed to help its enemies in the war. None know his possible motivations, but some say they are written in scrolls of prophecy. The ninth and final book of the Wind of Destiny series.

The city of Thenai burns, and hopes for the military alliance it once led begin to falter. In the midst of the wreckage, rebels pick up the pieces and take the fight to their captors. Tasked with crushing the insurrection is Pereon, a foreigner with a mission he has hidden even from his closest allies. On the other side of the world, the amazon Khloe begins a desperate search for her friend, the hero Theron, believing if she finds him she can turn the tide of the war. But as the factions clash, a new conflict is rising no one foresaw, not between nations but between the old gods and the new...

The tenuous alliance between the cities of Eloesus evaporates. With the nation divided into the Thenoan and Kersican Leagues, war has become inevitable. Out of the division, a new foe arises: the one called the Dark Captain. The Kersican League considers him the greatest of assets, but no one truly knows him or what lies beneath the surface. The fourth book in the Wind of Destiny series.

In the shadow of a mountain, Rogon, the Dark Captain — slain by his enemies — stirs to life. Bearing the Gauntlet of the Demiurge, he awakens more powerful than ever before. Not far away, Theron, hero of the Southron War, embarks on a quest to avenge the Oracle for her betrayal. With the centaur Aigon at his side, he navigates a country torn asunder by war, ignorant of the power the Dark Captain has unleashed. The sixth book of the Wind of Destiny series.

The Demiurge’s legacy of evil has been largely forgotten; the memory of his reign of terror, almost vanished. Yet Gaia—having bridged the gap between her world and his—ushers him once again into the world of the living. As Eloesus slips into total war, the hero Theron hides away in a secluded mountain. Under the guidance of the centaur Aigon, he flees danger, even as the Demiurge’s shadow falls across the land. The fifth book of the Wind of Destiny series.

A summons from a long-lost mentor thrusts Reev Nax, a boy of uncertain parentage, into a fateful journey of discovery. Reev learns that an ancient evil has reawakened in the world of Varda, and that two prophetic figures, one the Hand of Light and the other, a man declared the Dark One's Hand, are predicted to appear. Along the way, he will meet many friends—Fortunato, a warrior and tracker; Wrinn, a former pit fighter; Ambrass, a serving girl whose fate may be written in the stars; and more.

Lorkdan, mercenary and sell-sword, once overthrew the Count of Valle and defeated thirty warriors at once. His mastery of the sword is legendary throughout the world — but a journey, thrust upon him, will teach him of dangers that steel cannot defeat, that weapons cannot break. A tale of the lost chapters.

The Empire teeters on the brink of collapse. A hedonistic teen assumes the throne under false pretenses while a slave rebellion erupts in the north. The southern King of Kings, sensing weakness, sets his eyes on his vulnerable foe. In the midst of the growing tumult, a young man from the Empire's hinterlands grudgingly heads to Imperial City. There, Claudio-Valens sees firsthand the weak, treasonous Imperial Council that aids foreign enemies, and finds himself at the center of the fight to save the country he loves.

Angrok, a great warrior, is called many things: a terrible destroyer by his many enemies, and a powerful avenger by those he chooses to save. This collection brings together two of Angrok's adventures as told from the perspective of his assistant Marcellus. In "Angrok the Avenger", Marcellus and his master take revenge upon a dangerous city of spider worshippers. In "Angrok the Destroyer", they come to Bezakirah, a desert city controlled by two fanatical and increasingly warlike houses. Whether he is a destroyer or an avenger, you decide.

More than 400 years after the vampire's curse first took hold among the Dark Prince's children, the druen nation faces certain doom. The non-cursed elven tribes, angered by recent atrocities, form an unprecedented union to annihilate the druen race. The king of the vampires musters his too-few soldiers to stave off certain obliteration, but the Dark Elves and High Elves, acting in unison, have made up their minds: to invade the Dark Land and bring about the Day of Reckoning.

From the ashes of civil war, the vampire nation emerges stronger than ever. Homar son of Homar, whom history will know as the Prince of Dread, musters his troops to avenge a nearly forgotten wrong. Caught in the wake of the vampire king's ambition is Malirias, an escaped slave who would rather die than lose his false freedom. But the vampire nation does not forgive, and in the end he may perish in the tumult, threatening to remake the world.

Druthor, the ancient king of the vampires, sought to cheat death with alchemy but only quickened his demise. His sudden death throws Nardur into civil war as the lesser lords vie for the Crimson Throne. In the north, the Black Zealots of the Lonely Temple remain neutral but - in time - everyone must pick their allegiance; and choosing the wrong side means death.

>A century has passed since the vampire race settled in the arctic north. It seems all is well for Druthor the Great, King of the Vampires, sitting uncontested on the Crimson Throne, when an iron sorceress arrives from the southlands. With her tales of war and tumult, she brings memories of what Druthor does not have: a national heirloom, an ancestral treasure - Lifedrinker, the ancient blade of the vampires. But recovering it will prove more dangerous than any could possibly imagine.

Pietro, a young man, has never killed: something rare for the corrupt city of Peregoth and totally alien to the tropics of Molkoro, where circumstances will soon take him. In the sweltering jungle, his purity has become a commodity to the ettin invaders and their lord, the dark Vexor. But how long can his innocence last in a godless land?

This story originally appeared in Mindflights Magazine in Sept. 2008.

The City on the Rock is dying. It rests on Salan, Captain of the Tower Guard, to find out why.