At last! All of Jack Mackenzie’s Sirtago and Poet stories in two volumes. This is the first with the second, Blades & Abominations, coming later this year. This duo have been appearing together since 2005.
Contents
I: HERALDED BY BLOOD ………… Wherein our heroes come to meet each other as children and come face-to-face with an evil wizard.
II: THE GREEN BEAST ………. In which our heroes, as feckless teens vacation in a neighboring kingdom which harbors deadly secrets.
III: THE MARK OF GEHNESH …………. Our heroes strive to reverse a spell placed on Sirtago’s younger sister by a callous and deadly sorcerer.
IV: PIECES IN A GAME ………… Given a thankless task by a mercenary leader our heroes are waylaid and placed at the mercy of a wicked sorceress.
V: THE SOUND FROM THE DEEP ………. Whilst on the ocean a bitter sorceress uses Sirtago to attract a creature from the deep.
VI: FROZEN DOOM …….. Sirtago and Poet try to cross a mountain pass, but something unearthly stalks them on the frozen terrain.
From the southern kingdom of Trigassa come two warriors destined to blaze a path throughout the known civilizations.
Sirtago, the Ka of the kingdom and his companion, Poet, battle evil and sorcery throughout the land when it threatens Sirtago’s family.
As young men they defend the empress and emperor against a deadly beast whose secrets threaten to topple a neighbouring kingdom.
With Sirtago’s mighty sword and Poet’s deadly twin daggers, these two adventurers travel the land, plying their trade as hired swords to the Kajaghn fighters and outsmarting a sorceress who plans to raise an eldritch being, a demon who sleeps in caves far below the deep desert.
BUY IT HERE on Kindle and in paperback and Virtual Voice Audio
From the INTRODUCTION
Although he owes a great debt to sword and sorcery authors Robert E. Howard and Friz Leiber, Ka Sirtago’s original inspiration was a monkey.
Around 2005 I wanted to submit a sword and sorcery tale to an anthology called Kings of the Night, edited by G. W. Thomas. I wanted to the story to feature a powerful hero but I wanted him to be more than merely another Conan the Barbarian pastiche.
I happened to be watching television one night and I saw a documentary program all about the concept of the Alpha Male.Now, the concept of the alpha male came from a study of wolves in captivity and has since been debunked. There are no actual alpha males in the wild, nor in the urban jungle, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise has something to prove (and is likely overcompensating for some physical shortcomings). This documentary, dated as it was, purported to showcase several examples of the alpha behaviour in various animal packs.
But there was this one example which was an outlier. A monkey in a certain group in Africa had become the alpha male despite several disadvantages. The monkey had some severe scars. He was missing an eye and had an oddly shaped tooth. Normally an animal like that would never rise to the supreme position within the group.
This monkey, however, happened to be the son of the group’s alpha female – the queen, if you will – of the tribe. Her influence helped this particular monkey to secure the top spot.
Sword & Sorcery from RAGE machine Books
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