The Vastus Annals, Book I, by Karol Barry. High fantasy with a grimdark edge.
Magic has drained from the world of Vastus. The Great Dragons are gone, the Gods half-forgotten, and the Western Kingdoms spend their soldiers like coin on an endless frontier war.
Lucas Miller, a card cheat from Reedbywater, is caught and sentenced to twenty-five years in the penal Legion. Keta, an orphan thief, finds that the rat and the raven she runs with will do what she asks, and the city starts whispering witch. A young prince rides to the front believing the stories he was taught. Far to the east, in the lands of the Arkanin, a reckless shaman performs an old rite, and this time something answers.
The West holds by margins and blood, not destiny.
Read Chapter One
Chapter One, Cheaters Never Prosper, was published in Bard of the Isles in December 2020. A card game in a frontier inn, a hidden card, and a sentence worse than the gallows. Read it here.
Status
- Book I: in development, with a full chapter outline.
- The series: a planned trilogy.
Karol Barry
Karol Barry is the name Ruairí de Barra writes his fantasy and science fiction under, keeping the world of Vastus apart from his military thrillers, journalism, and poetry. Explore the world of Vastus.
