Every epic tale needs its villain. My new Fantasy book Warriors of the Blessed Realms is written against a backdrop of multiple worlds, and follows the adventures of heroes like Finn, from the Blessed Realms, and Liam, from Brisbane in Australia, as they fight the dark forces of the Vault of Seven Horns. They seek to defeat the plans of a cruel overlord, and rescue a captured priestess from a dark ritual that will give their enemy a vast increase in power. So who is the villain? Add one mind-controlling alien . . . the krell lord VoYannan!
So who are the krell? They are a solitary species that propagate without sexual union. Somewhere in their evolutionary history they took a dark, inward turn. In order to reproduce a krell must implant a krell-spawn into a host. The spawn grows in the host as a parasite until it rips its way free as a fully conscious krell. Nice eh? Heh – they are the bad guys! Each new krell possesses all the memories and talents of their progenitor, but their power as newborn krell depends on the choice of host. This is the fate of the captured priestess Sephany — unless our heroes can reach VoYannan’s ruined world and rescue Sephany from the depths of VoYannan’s dark citadel.
So why would a krell — who are always jealous of their power and control — loose a generation of krell-spawn on the universe? Because the sire and the newly born krell are mentally linked. The newly emerging krell can be leashed to their parent, and enhance the parent’s power. Yet there is a trade-off. As the new krell grows in strength, they can in turn consume and destroy their parent, as VoYannan did to his own progeninitor.
Krell don’t socialise well. In fact, they pretty much want to kill and dominate each other. Yet new krell keep coming.
The krell have awesome mind-control powers. Lord VoYannan, the ruler of the Vault of Seven Horns, controls fifty-eight planets, and dominates millions of sentient beings through direct mental control. He draws power from each, and enhances his power with each new mind brought under his control.
The Vaults themselves are dystopian SF worlds. Oppressed millions are kept in check by legions of laser-wielding brutes called Siithe, a savage race that consumes their victims (and even each other if they get the chance). Here are leaden skies, vast ruined cities, and factories manned by slaves from dozens of conquered species.
So, about the story . . .
Warriors is an epic tale spanning multiple worlds and multiple genres — fantasy, urban fantasy, and SF — where magic and high-technology go head-to-head.
VoYannan plots to unleash a devastating assault on the Blessed Realms, a coalition of six worlds with benign technology that is dedicated to preserving life. He uses an ancient Gateway on Earth to strike. His Vault forces capture the priestess Sephany, crucial to his plans, and escape.
Realm warrior Finn Evenstone sets off in pursuit, but cannot pass the Gateway used by the Vault.
Liam Durrow, sole survivor of an ancient Earth lineage, is led to Fraser Island by a vision, and uses his unique magical abilities as Keeper to open the Gateway.
Both Finn and Liam are soon battling the Vault on Earth, and in the Shadow Worlds, planets already ruined by the krell. They need all the help they can get. They are joined by tenacious Federal Agent Yolinda Paris, who has her own score to settle.
Check it out! Grab a copy of the book! Available at selected bookstores and these online retailers!
Hey Chris,
Nick Molloy here…long time associate and first time groupie.
I’m reading your latest, ‘Tower of the Mountain King’ on rainy days (so I’ve been doing quite a bit reading your book lately).
Surprisingly, to me anyway, I’m finding your latest ain’t half bad…okay, I’d go as far as saying ‘enjoyable’. Only trouble is, once it stops raining, it’s real hard to stop reading. I guess I’m enjoying the book more than I want to, what can I say….
Oh, I guess I could say I’m glad you’re not doing the create new lands or creatures, such as ‘middle earth’ and orcs, hobbits and the like.
That sort of fantasy is really hard for me to relate to, because, although I know it’s ‘imaginative’, I have trouble believing in this sort of imaging. I Know Orcs and Middle earth aren’t t real, and therefore find the story line of such books hard to care about or accept.
Basing stories on traditional Celtic tales and real historical time periods keeps your stories more ‘real’ and in turn ‘interesting’ for me👍🏻 Cudos!
Two questions. One, are the names you use in your novel real – either now or at some time in history.
Two, do you ever base your locations in your stories on real places? For example, the location setting for the festival of Beltane, with its great halls loosely based on rather imposing educational institutions and the like that you may have attended yourself?
Any way, I’m enjoying the novel so far…your narrative does actually create the world as a picture in my mind’s eye asi read. Well done (so far).
HI, Nick. Daryl mentioned you might be at the launch in Stones Corners, but Daryl seemed to vanish and I didn’t see you there. Thanks for reading the new book. Great you’re enjoying the story. I guess how much any reader likes the setting depends on individual taste. My prior books were much more in a purely invented world, whereas this one was definitely more “historical”. I’ve always enjoyed the Celtic world, and it was great to be able to portray that.
Your questions: 1) The names are familiar Irish names, but he actual characters are not based on any historical persons. 2) I’d say that the locations were inspired by real places – e.g. there are numerous hillforts on elevated land that might vaguely resemble the Labshatur hillfort – but not actually based on places I’ve been. Although another time, perhaps that might be true (for other novels in the future maybe).
Thanks for dropping a line & it’s fantastic to hear that you are enjoying the book
Cheers, Chris Mc