Here is my little contribution to my friend Scott’s new book launch. Releasing September 21, 2023, THE GAUNTLET RUNNER is the second full volume (third title, counting a prequel) of a fantasy trilogy called The Tharassas Cycle. The prequel ‘Tales from Tharassas’ and book 1 THE DRAGON EATER are both on sale for just 99c through October 5 - so you can get caught up. Click those highlighted titles for links, and click the image below for a link to THE GAUNTLET RUNNER!
Three key things about this series:
It’s good old-fashioned fantasy, featuring three young people (a thief, a guardsman, and a priestess/queen) whose alliance grows out of their past relationships and (mostly unspoken) hopes for the future;
If you’ve wanted more of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders, you’ll probably love this;
Book 1 sets everything up, including a little bit of sciency history and the adversary I expect our three heroes will face in the climax.
While I say ‘fantasy,’ this can also be considered ‘science fiction’ because we’re talking about a planet apparently colonized by humans, with human artifacts and technology (including a small device that houses an articulate AI which used to be the brain of a spaceship) in the mix, as well as another space-traveling entity (the expected adversary).
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t read much fantasy or science fiction now. I read reams of it in the past, though, so I got quite the nostalgia kick out of ‘The Dragon Eater.’ It appears as if THE GAUNTLET RUNNER will focus more on the guardsman, which makes me hope that book three will focus on the priestess/queen; she has a link to the planet’s ecosystem that I suspect will become crucial to overcoming their mutual adversary.
THE GAUNTLET RUNNER is a 95000+ novel featuring LGBTQ+ main characters on a world where gender fluidity is the norm and patriarchy is not. Read on for a non-exclusive excerpt:
Chapter One
Like Fire and Ice
He has to be here. Aik searched frantically through Raven’s pack as the early morning sunlight slipped across the stone windowsill and across the floor, a long, green-tinged ray of light.
He was anxious to be on his way after Raven. His heart was pounding, his thoughts skipping like a spinning stone off hard waters. No one else was awake yet, as far as he could tell, and he wanted to be in and out of the room before anyone was the wiser. Aik glanced at the unmade bed and blushed at what they’d done there the night before. He could still feel Raven’s touch, their bodies entwined….
The sooner he set off, the sooner Aik could rescue him from those awful creatures. The verent must have coerced him; Raven had all but said so. If he could just find Spin, the little familiar could guide him.
He doesn’t love you.
“Shut up.” Knowing that Raven had chosen the verent over him still burned. And that he didn’t say ‘I love you.’ But surely, he wasn’t allowed to be angry about that in the face of what had happened.
His mind was spinning, looking for answers, scared for his love, returning to old, stupid wounds and weaknesses.
Why?
The question reverberated again and again, but not even Aik knew what he was asking. His panic stripped away reason and maturity, and left him dizzy and afraid.
He got to the bottom of the pack, finding nothing but clothing and some toiletries. Farking hell. Where are you?
He started opening some of the side pouches, checking through each one before tying it closed again. Maybe Raven had taken Spin with him?
“Searching for this?”
He spun around to find Tri’Aya leaning against the doorway, looking as fresh as if she’d just slept ten hours, though she couldn’t have gotten more than four at best. How does she do that?
She held Spin’s silver sphere between two fingers.