Category: News

If you’ve been reading A Sea Sought in Song and thinking to yourself that you’re starting to get the hang of this Arlam place, I have news.

You are not prepared.

Wrath and Crimson Rime (“The Heir and the Herald” Book 2) drops this Tuesday the 7th. PREORDER IT NOW!

The wait is over.

After seventeen years of intensive preparation, “The Heir and the Herald” epic fantasy tetralogy has officially LAUNCHED. Its first volume—the 400-page novel “A Sea Sought in Song”—is now LIVE: https://amzn.to/3D49t2J

But reader beware! Beyond this portal lies Arlam—a land vast beyond imagining, ancient beyond reckoning, harsh beyond foreboding, beautiful beyond describing. A place where strong men struggle just to survive, and the wise are brought to grief. A realm of dream and night-sweat nightmare.

There is evil afoot in Arlam, and its nature remains obscure. Pay attention! Your arrival shall be like a stone striking still waters, your decisions like ripples through a conflict you can’t yet comprehend. You’ll be walking into a trap with eyes wide open. See, I have told you beforehand.

My name is Hugh Conrad. My father claims he reigned as king of an alien world, but all I know for certain is that he sent my friend in there to die. Time flows strangely in outer darkness—Dan is aging decades as we speak. I’m out of time, have to go now. Are you coming or not?

It’s okay. Trust me, we’ll make it. Here, take this rifle and stick close. I know what I’m doing.

Arlam awaits. Are you ready?

Over the years, you get used to saying “one day.”

“One day I’ll be done with the book.” “One day a publisher will take notice.” “One day it’ll get out there.” “One day readers will know.”

Then one day, “one day” becomes literal.

Only one more day until “A Sea Sought in Song” is loosed upon the world.

PREORDER IT NOW to get in on Arlam’s ground floor.

Great news for the voracious among you: after finishing Book One, you’ll be able to plow straight into Book Two!

Wrath and Crimson Rime is now ALSO AVAILABLE FOR KINDLE PREORDER!

(The description on Amazon contains spoilers, so my recommendation is to simply shut your eyes and click the “Pre-order” button.)

Longtime readers of this blog already know that Books One and Two were originally a single 750-page behemoth. I eventually split it and did a ton of rewriting and added a couple more chapters to what then became Book Two in an effort to not scare away publishers at first glance.

And now it turns out the books will be released simultaneously after all! Mua-ha-ha! I win!

A Sea Sought in Song, first installment in “The Heir and the Herald” epic fantasy tetralogy by Austin Gunderson, is NOW AVAILABLE FOR KINDLE PREORDER and will be released on February 7th! Creative Texts will follow up soon with books two and three, and Austin is currently hard at work crafting the saga’s cataclysmic conclusion.

---

The savior of legend is a clueless barbarian. The woman who spent her life preparing for his advent is having second thoughts. Can they overcome their differences long enough to avoid snuffing out civilization?

When a brash foreigner by the name of Hugh Conrad washes up on the doorstep of Ilina Lightkeeper, daughter of those left behind by the king, her bookish hermitage becomes a fulcrum of history. Hugh, late of mythical Earth, is heir to a lost global kingdom. But his brutality disturbs the woman born to be his herald. To her own alarm, Ilina finds herself opposing the embodiment of her ancestors’ hopes.

While Ilina must judge between observation and prophecy, Hugh must adapt or die. He left Earth to rescue a friend, not a nation, but his arrival in this alien world changes everything. Can his power unify the last free people of Arlam? Or will his ignorance destroy them forever? And does he have to embrace his father’s false divinity in order to salvage what’s left of the old man’s domain? Really?

As he and Ilina hunt desperately for answers, they are propelled into battle against an evil more insidious than even their fairytales recollect.

A Sea Sought in Song is a breathtaking plunge into peril and intrigue that only accelerates over time. Ferocious action, amplified by a unique magic system, unfolds against culturally-complex backdrops. This Indiana Jones-goes-to-Narnia adventure will delight fans of Tad Williams, Brandon Sanderson, and Patrick Rothfuss.

Preorder it today!