Battlemage

Aryan’s epic fantasy debut provides bloody battles and large-scale political intrigue in a land of ancient magic, along with bucket loads of purple prose and a story that asks far more questions than it answers. War is coming to Seveldrom, stirred up by mad King Taikon, a rogue Battlemage called the Warlock, and the Warlock’s apprentices. Fortunately King Matthias can count on his own host of eight loyal Battlemages, led by trusted mage Balfruss and crack military leader Vannok, and ably assisted by Matthias’s daughter, Princess Talandra, and her widespread spy network. There are hints of larger, ancient forces at work, but little is resolved or clarified in this series opener. With over-the-top psychopathic villainy and graphic battle scenes where “gouts of blood and chunks of flesh rained down... as limbs and pieces of men were sliced away,” this is epic fantasy for readers who appreciate extra helpings of carnage with their backstabbing. (Sept.)