Gail Z Martin – författare

Amidst the shadows, chaos reigns. Blaine "Mick" McFadden managed to partially restore Donderath''s magic, but not without a cost. He and the magic are now bound together, and the power remains dangerous and erratic - draining the life from him with every use.New threats are rising from the wreckage of the battered kingdoms, and warlords both mortal and undead vie for control. Now, Blaine and his unlikely band of convict heroes must find allies amidst a seas of enemies, and discover a way to rebind magic to the will of mortals before it destroys him. And time is running out . . .

From Gail Z. Martin, one of the most exciting writers of fantasy adventure, comes the fourth and final novel in the epic Ascendant Kingdoms saga.Blaine McFadden and his allies have brought magic back under mortal command and begun to restore order to the beleaguered kingdom of Donderath. Now, new perils and old enemies gather for a final reckoning. Foreign invaders, a legendary dark mage and vengeful immortals fight Blaine''s battered forces for control of the continent, and Blaine''s weary army is the only thing standing between a kingdom struggling to rise from the ashes and a descent into fury and darkness.

Explore the origin of Blaine McFadden and his allies in this short story prequel to the epic Ascendant Kingdoms Saga from Gail Z. Martin.Condemned to exile in an arctic prison colony for murdering his sister''s attacker, Blaine McFadden has lost everything -- his title, his family and his fiancé. Velant Prison holds the worst of the kingdom''s convicts, overseen by brutal guards who are exiles themselves. When a sadistic guard takes things too far, Blaine''s insubordination makes him a target of the prison''s notorious commander. To survive, Blaine needs to rely on his wits and his fists -- and a few good friends to watch his back.Word Count: 7,000

As plague and famine scourge the Winter Kingdoms, a vast invasion force is mustering from beyond the Northern Sea. And at its heart, a dark spirit mage wields the blood magic of ancient, vanquished gods. Summoner-King Martris Drayke must attempt to meet this great threat, gathering an army from a country ravaged by civil war. And neighbouring lands reel toward anarchy while plague decimates their leaders. Drayke must seek new allies from among the living - and the dead - as an untested generation of rulers face their first battle.Then someone disturbs the legendary Dread as they rest in a millennia-long slumber beneath sacred barrows. Their warrior guardians, the Sworn, know the Dread could be pivotal as a force for great good or evil. But if it''s the latter, could even the Summoner-King''s sorcery prevail?

Summoner-King Tris Drayke takes what remains of the Margolan army north to fight a war Margolan is ill-prepared to fight, as reports from spies confirm Tris'' worst fear. A new threat rises across the sea: a dark summoner who intends to make the most of the Winter Kingdoms'' weakness. And in Isencroft, King Donelan is assassinated and Tris''s wife, Kiara, will now have no choice except to return and claim the crown. But the rogue mage''s agents will go to any length to prevent her from reaching her goal.Kiara and Tris must discover the truth behind the dark summoner, the mysterious power surrounding their infant son, and face the awesome power of the Dread as they rise from their barrows for the first time in over a millennium.

FROM THE RUINS, A HERO WILL RISECondemned as a murderer for killing the man who dishonored his sister, Blaine McFadden has been banished for years to a penal colony in the frigid northern wastelands of Edgeland. Military discipline and the oppressive magic of the governor''s mages keep a fragile peace, as colonists struggle to survive in the harshest of conditions. But now the supply ships have stopped coming, and this bodes ill for the kingdom that banished the colonists . . .McFadden and the other exiles must decide their fate. They can remain in their icy prison, or they can return to the ruins of the kingdom that they once called home. Either way, destruction lies ahead . . .

Blaine McFadden survived six years in the brutal Velant prison colony, exiled for murder. When war devastates his homeland of Donderath, it also destroys the intentional magic on which Donderath and its fellow kingdoms rely. Blaine and a small group of fellow exiles return to a lawless wasteland where unrestrained magic storms appear and disappear unpredictably, and monsters roam the ruins.Yet rumours persist that the seeds of a new magic rest with a dangerous, ancient ritual and a handful of survivors who have disappeared. McFadden resolves to find these survivors and work the ritual, despite the danger, to restore the magic and end the chaos. He rallies a small and desperate army for a last stand, knowing that if they fail, the civilisation of the Ascendant Kingdoms dies with them.