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Dante and Blays have forced Gladdic from the Collen Basin. But the victory might only be the first battle in a much larger war. With the land on the brink of starvation and politically fractured, Dante and Blays scramble to secure Collen's food, borders, and allies. Before their work is done, rumor arrives from Mallon. The enemy is mustering for another attack. Even if Collen can weather the coming storm, there's no guarantee their independence will last out the year. During a border raid, Dante learns Gladdic has fled to the shadowy realm of Tanar Atain, home of the Andrac. And what Gladdic returns with could tip the balance of power forever. Set in a USA TODAY bestselling world, THE WOUND OF THE WORLD is the third book in the Cycle of Galand.

Forging Divinity is an epic fantasy with a strong emphasis on intelligent characters, political schemes, and well-developed magic systems. If you enjoy reading about characters that try to use their abilities cleverly to solve problems, you'll probably enjoy the book. If you prefer stories where magic remains more mystical and vague, it probably wouldn't be to your tastes.Here's a quick blurb:Some say that in the city of Orlyn, godhood is on sale to the highest bidder. Thousands flock to the city each year, hoping for a chance at immortality. Lydia Hastings is a knowledge sorcerer, capable of extracting information from anything she touches. When she travels to Orlyn to validate the claims of the local faith, she discovers a conspiracy that could lead to a war between the world's three greatest powers. At the focal point is a prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to the long-missing leader of the pantheon she worships. Rescuing the prisoner would require risking her carefully cultivated cover - but his execution could mean the end of everything Lydia holds dear.

The Wizard's Council of Tarador was supposed to tell young Koren Bladewell that he is a wizard. They were supposed to tell everyone that he is not a jinx, that all the bad things that happen around him are because he can't control the power inside him, power he doesn't know about. The people of his village, even his parents, are afraid of him, afraid he is cursed. That he is a dangerous, evil jinx. The Wizard's Council didn't tell young Koren, because they know what is best for him. Even after their silent deception destroys his life. Crown Princess Ariana Trehayme will become queen of Tarador on her sixteenth birthday, if her weak, indecisive mother the Regent hasn't allowed their ancient enemy to conquer Tarador before then. Ariana wants her royal army to strike at the enemy, but her mother knows what is best for her, and the realm. Together, Ariana and Koren can save Tarador, if the adults, who know best, will get out of their way.

When Dante Galand was just a boy, his father Larsin sailed away to make his fortune. And never returned. Since then, Dante has become a great sorcerer. A ruler. A destroyer of kings. And he's just learned that his father is living on a forbidden island at the edge of the known world. Where he's dying of a mysterious plague. In the company of his friend, the swordsman Blays, Dante travels to the island. There, his magic can do nothing for his father. As Dante and Blays quest for a cure-beset by strange beasts, angry spirits, and violent coastal raiders known as the Tauren-Dante falls sick, too. To save his father and himself, he'll have to rediscover the island's long-lost magic. But the hunt for its secrets leads Dante on a crash course with the Tauren-and island-wide civil war. And as he's away, an old threat begins to move against his homeland. Set in a USA Today-bestselling world, THE RED SEA is the first in a trilogy of warfare, sorcery, and friendship through the darkest times.

The White Lich has conquered Tanar Atain. Soon, he means to take the entire world. Dante suspects his next target will be Bressel, where the Tanarians have established their court in exile. The only chance to stop the lich will be to forge a fragile alliance between the bitter enemies of three different lands: Tanar Atain, Mallon, and Narashtovik. The city stands on the brink of rebellion. Yet even if Dante, Blays, and Gladdic can unite it, they still might not have the strength to stand against the army of the lich. One last hope may stop the coming destruction: the legendary Spear of Stars. But the weapon was lost long ago. To find it again, they may have to travel further than they've ever known.

At long last, the reason for the blessed Adept race's decline has been discovered: powerful beings known as Malorin'athgul are disrupting the Balance and preventing Alorin's Adepts from awakening to their gifts. Who are they? Where are they? And how can they be stopped when they wield a power meant to unmake the universe itself? In T'khendar...Prince Ean val Lorian has forsaken his companions in blood and battle to join the traitorous Fifth Vestal in T'khendar in the hopes of gaining some insight into the tragedies that plagued his Return. Now he must confront the man he's long thought of as his enemy and discover the role he is meant to play in the First Lord's darkly magnificent game. The Vestal Raine D'Lacourte has followed his traitorous oath-brother Bjorn through six kingdoms and into the distant realm of T'khendar seeking explanation and atonement. But the condemned realm harbors shocking secrets, and Raine soon realizes he's facing his greatest enemy yet--not in Bjorn, but in the truth. Elsewhere in Alorin...the young truthreader, Tanis, faces a new villain in the fiery-eyed man he followed from the cafe in Rethynnea; the soldier Trell struggles to reconcile his growing feelings for the girl he rescued from the river against the guilt of his unknown past; and in Tambarre, another truthreader named Kjieran van Stone treads the incense-filled hallways of the Prophet Bethamin's temple hoping to uncover a plot of treachery and betrayal before the Prophet demands his soul. The time has come for each player to claim his role in the First Lord's masterful game. All will be tested, but only time will tell how many can survive the dagger of Adendigaeth.

"All things are formed of patterns..." And within the pattern of the realm of Alorin, three strands must cross: In Alorin... three hundred years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor's brand. It is the Adept Vestal Raine D'Lacourte's mission to learn what Bjorn knows in the hope of salvaging his race. But first he'll have to find him. In the kingdom of Dannym... the young Prince Ean val Lorian faces a tenuous future as the last living heir to the coveted Eagle Throne. When his blood-brother is slain during a failed assassination, Ean embarks on a desperate hunt for the man responsible. Yet his advisors have their own agendas, and his quest for vengeance leads him ever deeper into a sinuous plot masterminded by a mysterious and powerful man, the one they call First Lord. In the Nadori desert...tormented by the missing pieces of his life, a soldier named Trell heads off to uncover the truth of his shadowed past. But when disaster places him in the debt of Wildlings sworn to the First Lord, Trell begins to suspect a deadlier, darker secret motivating them. Honor-bound to serve the First Lord in return for his life, Trell continues on his appointed path, yet each day unveils new and stranger secrets that eventually call into question everything he knows.

After a year of fighting across three different lands, Dante and Blays have finally brought Gladdic to justice-and in the process, they've unleashed a horror beyond all reckoning. The enemy is known as the White Lich. He is ancient. He is immensely powerful. And Gladdic believes he will soon enslave all of Tanar Atain. Their only chance to defeat him is to strike fast, before the lich has regained his power. But attacking him directly would be suicide. Instead, Gladdic has an alternative. Once upon a time, the lich was human, with a mortal body. Gladdic believes that original body is still out there, hidden somewhere in the swamps. If they can find it and kill it, then the lich should die with it. But if they fail, the White Lich will rip the souls from the people of Tanar Atain-and turn his gaze on the rest of the world.

The Chainbreakers' War freed the norren. Won independence for Narashtovik. And drove a rift between Dante and Blays that may never be mended. After three years of wandering, Blays has returned to Gask. Blaming its king for the loss of his love, Lira, he poses as a merchant and infiltrates the enemy nobility. His goal is to bankrupt the kingdom and force its ruler from the throne. But his scheme is ruined when Dante arrives and outs him to the king. In desperation, Blays flees to the one place Dante can't follow: the forbidden Pocket Cove. There, he intends to learn whatever secrets have kept its people hidden for centuries. Meanwhile, Dante is called back to Narashtovik. Strange lights have been seen in the nearby Wodun Mountains. His investigation reveals the lights herald the return of the Black Star, a long-lost item capable of making wishes real. With it, Dante plans to make himself immortal. To find it, he must cross the Woduns into the mysterious country of Weslee. But there are others vying for the Black Star-and if they find it first, they will use it to scour Narashtovik from the earth.

Young Cally is an apprentice within the most unusual order of sorcerers in the known world: the only one that forbids its members from using their powers to kill.Despite his lowly status, Cally's chosen by the Master of the Order to join a delegation to see their allies the Lannovians. The meeting will be historic: sixty years ago, the Order's enemies attacked them with a host of demons, forcing the Order to trap the monsters inside their own citadel and seal it shut with impenetrable wards. The trick worked so well the Order hasn't been able to get it back open since. But the Lannovians may have just discovered a way.As the meet unfolds, the Order's day of joy turns into a massacre. Cally and a grim soldier named Rowe are the only two to make it out of the ambush alive. As they flee into the wilds, they uncover a conspiracy that threatens to destroy everything Cally holds dear-but in order to stop it, he may have to betray every one of the Order's beliefs.THE SEALED CITADEL is the first in a new series following the rise of one of the greatest sorcerers of the age.

War has come to Veydrus.As Kyrus Hinterdale and Brannis Solaran work to understand the intricacies of their Twinborn connection, they must also analyze and unravel the game Jinzan and Denrick played to get a step ahead of them. While planning a war, and coming to terms with Juliana’s impending wedding to Iridan, Brannis knows that he needs to feed Kyrus more advanced magical knowledge and training if they ever hope to keep the Kadrin empire from destruction.However, just as plans are starting to come together, a spell of Kyrus’ goes very wrong, and the two find themselves in an even bigger dilemma than ever. With the help of other Twinborn, they struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, and set everything back as it should be.

The first two books in A Pattern of Shadow & Light introduce readers to the realm of Alorin and its magical Adept race, which is facing extinction. The race's tragic decline is the result of Malorin'athgul, powerful beings from the fringes of Chaos, whose presence in Alorin has caused a shift in the cosmic Balance. Fate bends to their will, and their will is set upon Alorin's destruction. Alone in understanding the threat they pose, Alorin's Fifth Vestal, Bjorn val Gelderan, has launched a desperate plan to stop them: a "great game" played upon the tapestry of mortal life. Now, in Paths of Alir, A Pattern of Shadow & Light Book 3, Bjorn's Players have taken the field: Along the lush Caladrian coast of Agasan...the truthreader Tanis d'Giverny returns to the place of his birth and finds mysterious and wonderful workings waiting for him. But the zanthyr Phaedor warns Tanis that ominous events lie ahead, and the lad soon begins to wonder if even his mother's magical lessons will be enough to keep him alive. In the dungeons of Tal'Shira...held prisoner by the Adept Inquisitor Taliah hal'Jaitar, Prince Trell val Lorian is facing a life of enslavement. Only two paths lie open before him: one means an eternity of torture fighting Taliah's attempts to break him; the other requires surrendering to her will. But can he really sacrifice everything he is to walk Taliah's path of twisted magic known as mor'alir? In the snow-bound Castle of Tyr'kharta...Prince Ean val Lorian must choose to save his brother Sebastian or his loyal men. But to choose his men means leaving Sebastian to an eternity of enslavement; while rescuing Sebastian means abandoning his friends, and his honor along with them. Either decision will test Ean's newfound skills as well as his conviction, for as the prince learns, once a man becomes a Player in the First Lord's game, not even death can give reprieve.

Good storyline, but some character flaws.This book continues where the first one left off. Koren runs away fearing for his life because of idiotic decisions made by poor " leaders". Poor leaders who have lied to him and who have not given him any credit for helping when he did not have to. He ends up finding himself on the seas. Poor guy struggles wherever he goes. I feel for the kid! And the regent?!?!?! What in the world?!?! How could a person assumed as leader be so ignorant? I find myself wanting to meet her in a dark alley and beating some sense into her. I mean, really?!?! "Well, let's just sit here and not engage an enemy and let them take over our lands." That's her attitude it seems. An attitude I find quite annoying throughout the story. She doesn't listen to any of her army generals or commanders. She doesn't listen to ANY advice, except for the one where to withhold information from Koren. Um, yeah. Could be better, I think. It was good, but some of the characters made me clench my teeth.

Dante Galand has cured the sickness that trapped him on the Plagued Islands. Now, it's time to leave. And kill a priest. The target is Gladdic of Bressel. Gladdic, who executed Dante's friend, the pirate Captain Twill. Who all but enslaved the Plagued Islands. And whose visions of empire are far from over. But Gladdic is trained in both ether and nether-and a darker magic than Dante has ever known. He's the most dangerous foe Dante has faced. And if Dante falls, so will an entire kingdom. Set in a USA TODAY bestselling world, THE SILVER THIEF is the second book in the Cycle of Galand.

“You cannot sculpt a piece into a Player. A Player must mold himself out of fortitude and conviction.” - Björn van GelderanAfter the events of Cephrael’s Hand, The Dagger of Adendigaeth and Paths of Alir, the realm of Alorin remains unbalanced. The Fifth Vestal Björn van Gelderan has sent his Players onto the field. Now they must hold their positions against Malorin’athgul, as well as their immortal allies.In Kandori…Prince Ean val Lorian is bound to Björn’s van Gelderan’s game and to his sister Isabel, but Ean would rather be free of both of them. Yet he fears the game won’t let him—nor will the man he used to be. Chained by guilt on one side and duty on the other, Ean chases memories through three kingdoms in an attempt to become a Player on his own terms.In Hallovia…Tanis of Adonnai has discovered his true identity and his nature as an Adept of four strands. He’s bound himself to the Malorin’athgul Pelas and in turn bound Pelas to his uncle Björn van Gelderan’s game. But will Pelas’s ability to bend Fate to his will be enough to oppose the intentions of his brothers, Darshan and Shail? And will Pelas be able to keep Tanis safe from the immortal Warlock Sinárr, who vowed to go to any lengths to make Tanis his concubine?At the First Lord’s sa’reyth…Prince Trell val Lorian has been rescued from the island of Darroyhan and the mor’alir Adept Taliah hal’Jaitar and is recovering at the First Lord’s sanctuary. But while Trell is enjoying an overdue reunion with his betrothed, Alyneri, he suspects he cannot long remain off the field. If the game doesn’t summon him back, his conscience will, for he owes his life to too many others. Primary among these is the Water Goddess Naiadithine. Trell can’t help but wonder what the goddess will require of him in return for Her many graces…and if it will be a price he’s willing to pay.As Björn’s game intensifies and wars escalate, those serving the Fifth Vestal must mold themselves into more than mere Players. They must become his Kingdom Blades.

The Goblin Invasion Is On... ...and a wizard's work is never done! After facing a hopeless siege, an implacable foe and an impossible escape, you would think that Minalan the Spellmonger would be able to rest -- but the armies of the undead goblin shaman Sheruel (known as the Dead God to his human victims) are rolling over the western reaches of the rustic Duchy of Alshar and is headed toward the heart of the Duchy of Castal. Thousands are fleeing for their lives as hordes of goblins pour out of Boval Vale and devastate the rugged fiefs of the Alshari Wilderlands. And the super-charged shamans of the Dead God are making defending the realm almost impossible for the outnumbered Alshari country knights. While the two Dukes play feudal politics to further their own ends, the only people who seem to care about the invasion are Minalan and his outlaw warmagi friends -- and they're busy dodging agents of the sinister Royal Censorate of Magic. But if someone doesn't organize an army in northern Alshar soon, then there will be nothing to stop the armies of the divinely-powerful Dead God from conquering all five Duchies in his genocidal quest for vengeance. But things are just not that simple: he has to cope with a sexy young Shadowmage assassin who works for a mysterious spymaster, a cocky new manservant, a dysfunctional group of suddenly-powerful warmagi, the Censor General, and a bunch of whiny nobles before the Dukes will grant him the troops and money he will need -- and the Dukes have plans of their own. If Minalan the Spellmonger can't lobby the courts of Alshar and Castal to work together -- and quickly -- the hordes of the Dead God will sweep over the frontiers of both states. Worse, the mysterious Umbra veil he has erected around Boval Vale may come to imperil all Five Duchies. Minalan would rather just go home and let the Dukes handle it, but his conscience won't let him. Someone has to stop the Dead God . . . and that someone happens to be him. Beyond politics and plots, goblins and trolls, mercenaries and magic, the Soulless and the shamans, Censors and secret orders, for Minalan there is only the thought that his child is to be born in a world with such dangers, and that is something he cannot permit. It is time for the Spellmonger to pick up his mageblade, grab his witchstone, summon his allies, and go to war again . . . as a Warmage!

The White Lich has conquered Mallon and smashed all resistance to him. Now, he marches on the north. Within weeks, Narashtovik will fall to his armies. Gask will follow. And after that, there can be no stopping him. Dante and Blays have a single hope of victory: the Spear of Stars, the long-lost weapon that may be capable of killing the lich. There's just one problem. Though they've learned the spear is real, they've also learned the nine parts of the weapon are guarded by the gods themselves. And they have no intention of handing over their prize. Alone in a strange realm, with no friends or allies, and a growing list of enemies, Dante and Blays' task looks doomed. Yet they're the last line standing between the lich and the destruction of their whole world.