World of Myth Series

Half a year has passed since Emily Stout set sail to fulfill her destiny. Lucifan, family, and friends are nothing more than a treasured memory, left in the past along with a life she chose not to have. For the first time, she is on her own, both free to do as she pleases and without aid to protect her from the consequences. It is a daunting prospect, for the world she lives in is renowned for its danger. Every land is filled with terrible creatures and equally terrifying people, and Emily’s path ahead is shrouded in uncertainty. Her destination, Juatwa, is a place she knows only by name, and after six months at sea, she’s still only halfway there. Between her and Juatwa lies Savara, an ancient and massive land of sand, blood, and chaos. Its tale is one of forgotten glory, and its reputation one of ruinous turmoil. Known as the Grand Desert, it is a place that has seen entire civilizations meet their end. And Emily means to cross it.

The Forest of Angor looms ahead, land of giant wooden pillars and deadly enemies—from centaurs to elves, treants to bugbears, werewolves and more. Emily Stout has never seen nor faced such challenges as she will in the shadows of this forest. Beyond lies Themiscyra, home to the amazons and the tenuous promise of safety. Meanwhile, the traitor still lingers among them, hiding in anonymity and free to plot and act. Emily is running out of time as the amazons fight their way through the hostile forest. She must watch and wait, hoping the traitor will make a mistake before the woman who would plot against her own sisters can carry out her plan to deliver a basilisk to a power-hungry vampire. Emily has her suspicions, but a dream from the silent angel, Quartus, haunts her thoughts. The dream is a warning of dark times ahead, of choices to make and of mistakes that can never be undone, a never-ending cycle of betrayal, fear, and death. Emily knows she must solve the riddle of the dream or risk tragedy for herself, her family, Lucifan, and perhaps even the world.

For sixteen years, Emily Stout has known a simple, yet harsh, life on the Great Plains—farming the land, avoiding thunderbirds and banshees, dealing with minotaurs and gnomes—but she dreams of more. She longs to wander the plains as a gunslinger, serve the angels as a knight, or anything else that could break her free of her trapped existence. Then, in a moment of desperation, Emily’s mother reveals a secret, one that will change everything for her, give her the chance to explore her world, and send her to the magnificent city of Lucifan. However, Lucifan is not the utopia it appears to be, and there are many dark and deadly creatures with equally dark and deadly plans. Amongst the brutal ogres, terrifying gargoyles, and plotting leprechauns, Emily will find an enemy shrouded in darkness and deceit who wants nothing more than her death. Faced with all of this, what chance does a farmer’s daughter have?

Vengeful and determined, Emily Stout and Adelpha have chased Heliena through the Forest of Angor, across the Great Plains, and all the way to the city of Lucifan. Their journey seems nearly complete, yet it has only just begun. In Lucifan, Heliena will reunite with her husband, a shogun from Juatwa, and all the allies her dark pact has acquired. Bringing her to justice will take everything they have, and perhaps more. However, it isn’t a simple matter of cornering Heliena and taking her down. While they have traveled, Lucifan has come under assault—an attack not from an invading army, but from the corruption and greed grown within its own streets in spite of the best intentions of its guardians, the angels. A reckoning has come, and the battle for Lucifan’s soul is underway. And Emily did not travel all this way to sit this one out.

The time has come for Emily to make good on her promise of vengeance—a promise made not only to herself, but to the angels of Lucifan. After chasing Heliena the world over, Emily finally has her cornered, but with nowhere left to run, Heliena won’t be so easy to defeat. In Juatwa, a place of never-ending war waged on a massive scale, Emily must fight her way through deadly creatures, ninja assassins, and not one, but three armies, all for the slim chance at defeating her nemesis, once and for all. But Emily has an ally on her side whose skills rival her own. With his help, a bit of determination, and perhaps some luck, they might just win the day.

There exist few men with a story as pitiful as Takeo Karaoshi’s. No friends, no family, and reeling from the death of his only love, the wandering ronin has less of a reason to live than most. He has but one companion now, an ex-knight and former enemy named Gavin Shaw, who suffers from equally dismal prospects. Once the two men lived to serve a greater purpose, but now they've been cut loose from all bonds of service and obligation, and times have never been worse. Only their lingering rivalry keeps back the darkness of total despair. But it’s hard to keep a heartless rogue and a drunken bastard down forever. With only the loss of their one true love in common, they set out on a quest so ambitious that were they men with anything left to lose, they would surely turn away.

Takeo Karaoshi is not a patient man. In his fledgling quest to unite the world, he has already dodged assassination, taken possession of an enchanted sword, and slain the one responsible for betraying him; it’s an impressive list of feats by any measure. Now, as Takeo moves to serve a new mistress, the Lady Zhenzhen Hanu, he finds himself in the same position as always: hated, distrusted, and underused. Sent on a fool’s mission to command a small band of youngsters in a fight to chase off a rogue band of vikings, Takeo instead finds himself facing an unexpected enemy that threatens to topple the entire Hanu Empire. The only things standing in the way are Takeo, his ambition, and those he’s willing to sacrifice. Blood is sure to flow.

Purpose. It is the one thing Takeo has always wanted, and it is within reach. He means to piece together not only a world left fractured by Jabbar’s wrath, but also a heart torn asunder by Emily’s death. Under the service of a new shogun, Takeo sets out for the desert sands of Savara on a task worthy of his skill—perhaps too worthy. To help him on his quest, he has the benefit of something he never once had: friends. At his side stand a knight with a heart of gold, a viking with no fear, and an ogre with unbound strength. Unfortunately, it is not enough. Takeo aims to accomplish the impossible, to achieve something many have tried, but all have failed. To succeed, Takeo must be willing to make any sacrifice, climb any mountain, and cut any deal. The kind only a jinni can make. But at what cost?

Of all the things Emily Stout expected to discover on her quest for vengeance, love and destiny were not among them. Yet she found both only to lose them for the most pitiful of rewards: her life. Leaving the blood-soaked fields of Juatwa behind, Emily now journeys to the treacherous Mountains of Khaz Mal to track down and rescue the other half of her soul from slavery. Such a feat will require both careful planning and experience. Emily must accomplish it with neither. Even so, her destiny looms before her. Lucifan, former city of angels, faces annihilation at the hands of a tyrant, and only Emily can save it and, by extension, the world. For she has the ultimate weapon at her disposal, and should she fall, there will be no other to take it up in her place.

With power and respect finally in hand, rarely has so much hung in the balance for Takeo Karaoshi. Unfortunately, Lord Botan Katsu has all that, plus Gavin, Takeo's enchanted sword, and an impregnable defensive position. Stuck between Botan and the Nguyen forces, Takeo must risk it all to destroy one before the other closes in. A difficult but not impossible task. Yet things are never as simple as they appear.

The end is nigh. Never in living memory has Juatwa come so close to being united. Only two shoguns remain, each backed by a clever and tenacious general willing to sacrifice any and all for absolute victory. Between Takeo Karaoshi and Qadir, the rakshasa, the fate of Juatwa, and perhaps the world, hangs in the balance. Countless will be sacrificed, but Takeo did not come this far to give up now, especially when pitted against the likes of Qadir. Sometimes, to kill a disease, the entire wound must be doused in flames. Let the horror begin.

Takeo Karaoshi has never had the respect he deserves as master warrior, accomplished tactician, and survival savant. One would have to be a fool to ignore the threat he poses, and yet he’s been overlooked countless times and betrayed many more. Until now. After defying the Katsu horde, Takeo has earned the de facto command of an army, a legion of fanatical followers, and a sliver of respect at the generals’ table. It might just be enough to win against the Nguyens and the rakshasa pulling their strings. Except there’s one problem. He has many, many enemies. And they’re taking him seriously, too.

Contains books 1 through 6 of the World of Myth Series, from Beyond the Plains to A Legend Ascends. In a world filled with dangerous creatures of terrifying power, a courageous girl will grow from a naïve farmer’s daughter into a legendary warrior the likes of which her world has never known. Emily’s Saga follows the trials and tribulations of young Emily Stout from her humble beginnings in the depths of poverty to her rise in prowess under an angel’s shadow. Forging her own destiny, Emily’s ambition will change the course of history through her perilous gamble to slay an immortal, her daring attempt to turn the tides of a centuries-long war, and her decision to oppose the monsters that wish to enslave her world. All the while, she finds love and betrayal, kindness and cruelty, and struggles to avoid becoming as twisted as those she hunts in her quest for vengeance. A heroine for the ages, Emily will decide not only her own fate, but that of her world.

Deep within the Forest of Angor, near an old elven village, there lives a young man named Cyrus and his mother, Belen, trying desperately to avoid the seemingly endless conflict that plagues their world and hold tight to some measure of tranquility. At least, that is what Cyrus believes. He could not have known that his mother, a former amazon warrior, had other plans for him. Neither could he have known that the world had no intention of leaving him alone. And then, just as Cyrus comes of age, the merciless Dark Lord, Takeo Karaoshi, comes looking for him. Despite his best efforts, Cyrus is thrust into a decades’ long conflict that spans the world and plunges towards a dramatic conclusion. One of either ultimate salvation or tyrannical destruction.

Contains books #7 through #12 in the World of Myth Series, from Fated for War to A Legend Falls Beware the righteous, for they are the ones most capable of evil. Takeo Karaoshi knows these words well. After losing his beloved, this infamous and highly skilled ronin teams up with a washed-out ex-knight, a death-seeking viking, and a far-too-kind ogre on a quest to make the world a better place. Yet Takeo knows something they do not. Although the goal is worthy, he is not. No great accomplishment comes without sacrifice, and who better to sacrifice than the wicked and the wretched. A reckoning is at hand, and woe will befall more than the vanquished.

The drums of war echo loudly across the Khaz Mal Mountains, where Cyrus and Emy run for their lives from a group of mercenaries and towards an ancient dragon of immense power. Their situation is beyond tenuous, and things aren’t expected to get any better. The deep winter is settling in, after all. Cyrus never asked for any of this. Of course, neither did Emy, and neither did the world ask to be invaded by the Dark Lord and his armies. Cyrus is no stranger to having unfortunate situations forced upon him, but being given the task of slaying a dragon would strain even the most stalwart of individuals. If this hadn’t been given to them by an angel, they wouldn’t even consider such an impossible task. However, if taking on a dragon means they have a better chance of challenging the Dark Lord, then so be it. In fact, the dragon might be easier.