"Exceptional . . . Duncan can swashbuckle with the best, but his characters feel more deeply and think more clearly than most" ( Publishers Weekly).Raider and Wasp have spent five years at Ironhall studying to become Blades, expert swordsmen whose talents stand unmatched. Magic both enhances the Blades' fighting skills and binds them to lifelong duty. But when Raider and Wasp are selected to protect the king of Chivial himself, they refuse, an act unprecede...

A young couple battles forces determined to keep them apart in this high fantasy series by "one of the leading masters of epic fantasy" ( Publishers Weekly) .These four fantasy novels of love and adventure follow the exploits of childhood friends Inos and Rap as their feelings are tested by the direst of circumstances. But while abduction, magic, and imprisonment conspire to separate them, the two remain steadfast in their determination to be toge...

A young man is transformed into a barbarian fighter in this adventurous series from "one of the leading masters of epic fantasy" ( Publishers Weekly) .In this complete collection of the high fantasy Seventh Sword series by Aurora Award–winning author Dave Duncan, Wallie Smith must face a new destiny and save an unfamiliar world from evil forces.The Reluctant Swordsman: Wallie goes to the hospital and wakes up in the body of a barb...

A young man is transformed into a barbarian fighter in this adventure from "one of the leading masters of epic fantasy" ( Publishers Weekly) .Wallie Smith can feel the pain. He goes to the hospital and remembers the doctors and the commotion, but when he wakes up it all seems like a dream. However, if that was a dream, how do you explain waking up in another body and in another world? Little Wallie finds himself in the physique of a barbarian swor...

The Aurora Award–winning author of the Man of His Word novels returns to the magical realm of Pandemia with the first in his Handful of Men series.For fifteen years, Queen Inos and King Rap—the former stable boy and secret sorcerer—have ruled Krasnegar wisely and happily, raising a family and prospering in their remote little kingdom.But a darkness is encroaching, foreshadowed by prophecies of unimagined cataclysms across Pandemia. Prince Emshandar, better ...

The complete fantasy trilogy of a feared Scottish outlaw—from the author of the Seventh Sword series and "one of the leading masters of epic fantasy" ( Publishers Weekly).In his action-packed fantasy saga, originally written under the pseudonym Ken Hood, Scottish-born, Aurora Award–winning author Dave Duncan tells the tale of Scottish outlaw Toby Strangerson, known and feared by the name Longdirk. In 1244, all of Europe is under the control of Genghis Khan...

Fantasy at its most enchanting: An original and absorbing tale from a master storyteller about the profound effects of a single life on the battle against ultimate evilIt is Midsummer Day, the beginning of the year 700, in the city of Benign. All the children born in the year 684 celebrate their joint sixteenth birthday by passing in front of the statue of the blind goddess Caprice—but only one will become the Chosen and join the Seventy who govern and guide the cit...

The Aurora Award–winning author of the Man of His Word novels returns to the magical realm of Pandemia with this high fantasy series.In these four epic novels of sword and sorcery, discord rages throughout the land of Pandemia and the rightful rulers fight an unjust imperor.The Cutting Edge: For fifteen years, Queen Inos and King Rap have ruled Krasnegar peacefully, but now darkness encroaches. When a royal family grows tyrannical and armies wage wa...

"Complicated politics and family scandals twist through this tale of courtly intrigue from prolific fantasist Duncan" ( Publishers Weekly).Though Quirt's name is little known, his skills as a gladiator are quickly obvious and hard to match. In Aureity, noblemen battle in the arena circuit, using their powers of teleportation and telekinesis to prove their breeding and strength. The prizes at play are not only silver and bronze but also the chance to rise am...

In medieval Scotland, a Highlander picks up his sword against his oppressors. "Duncan excels at old-fashioned swashbuckling fantasy" ( RT Book Reviews).All of Europe is under the control of the Khan, whose conquering armies swept across the West in 1244. Scotland, in addition, lies under the heel of England. Young Toby Strangerson, a half‑English bastard, reared by a witchwife, wants only to shed his hated "Sassenach" blood and free his beloved highlands. ...

The looming threat of a once-in-a-millennium magical event sends nineteenth-century China into violent chaos in this epic alternate-history fantasy.Author of the Seventh Sword series Dave Duncan transports us to Imperial China in an alternate nineteenth century—an Asian epoch not unlike the Boxer Rebellion era—with a spellbinding tale of rebellion, political intrigue, larceny, seduction, shape-shifting, dark magic, and murder. These are troubled years in the Good La...

The Man of His Word series debut—a novel "with enough fresh ideas to allow it to sit unashamedly alongside the great fantasy books of recent times" (Fantasy Book Review)."Duncan's unique concept of goblins, fauns, and imps adds a new twist to this imaginative fantasy adventure" as Princess Inosolan is forced to leave behind her carefree childhood—as well as her dear friend, the stableboy Rap ( Library Journal). Now of marriageable age, she is sent to a fin...