Book picks similar to
Mask of Swords by Jonathan Moeller


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Eli


Marc Alan Edelheit - 2021
    A war of the Gods. An epic destiny.When elven rangers Eli’Far and Mae’Cara are dispatched to hunt down the dangerous criminal Mik’Las, the mission seems simple enough. Mik’Las has committed the unthinkable crimes of murder and kidnap, and though he’s a former ranger and skilled in the deadly arts, Eli is confident they will bring him to justice.But after Mik’Las flees into the human kingdom of the Castol, Eli and Mae find their mission suddenly wrought with complications. Lord Edgun, an oppressive man grinding his people under the heel of his boot, has left its people desperate. Things grow even more complicated when the elves run into Jitanthra, a strange human girl being hunted by Edgun’s men, and who has connections to a mystical outcast, an elf currently imprisoned by Edgun.Soon, Eli and Mae find themselves unexpectedly drawn into the middle of a rebellion, a struggle between gods, and the opening stages of the dreaded Last War.Elven ranger Eli’Far, first introduced in Stiger’s Tigers, rapidly became one of the fantasy genre’s standout characters. With A Ranger’s Tale, Edelheit pulls back the shroud to reveal the shocking and exciting tale of how Eli starts down the path to a destiny he can scarcely imagine possible, a fate that sees him inextricably linked to Stiger.

Rebellion of the Black Militia


Richard Nell - 2017
    Things only get worse from there...Beside him and hopefully guiding him rides Lam the squire—incessantly rude, incessantly smoking, and possibly insane. Or maybe fearless.Together they must track and capture the demon Sazeal, an ancient, unkillable creature of darkness, and in the meantime discover how it was released in the first place. If it was released at all…From the author of Kings of Paradise comes a world of muskets and cannon, knights and demons. This is the story of one man’s crucible, one man’s war against evil, and himself, brought about by rebellion…

Dragonlands: Volume 1-3


Megg Jensen - 2014
     Includes: Hidden: The mystery enshrouding Hutton’s Bridge is as impenetrable as the fog that descended at its borders eighty years ago. Each year, three villagers enter the mist searching for answers. No one ever returns. Then a dragon falls from the sky to the town square, dead—the first glimpse of an outside world that has become nothing more than a fairy tale to Hutton’s Bridge. Except to Tressa. Tressa grew up with Granna’s stories of the days before the fog fell. When Granna dies, leaving Tressa without any family, Tressa ventures into the fog herself, vowing to unravel the foul magic holding Hutton’s Bridge captive. What she discovers beyond the fog endangers the lives of everyone she loves. Hunted: The fog that trapped the people of Hutton's Bridge for eighty years has disappeared, but now so have the villagers. Fearing the worst, Tressa and Bastian must navigate a new and dangerous world in search of their people. Among their allies are a healer, a warrior, and even a dragon--but their enemies are far greater. Hutton's Bridge has long protected a powerful secret, one the dragonlords will kill to control. As the realms rise, Tressa and Bastian risk everything to save their people, until one must make the ultimate sacrifice. Retribution: Tensions are mounting in the Dragonlands. The dragon hordes are mustering, each with its own agenda. But Tressa must conquer her personal demons before answering the call to war. Gravely ill, her body undergoing mysterious and frightening changes, she travels to a distant land for the answers crucial to her survival. What she discovers rocks her to the core. As the battle begins, a long-slumbering magic--dark, powerful, and brutal--awakens. And Tressa learns the ones you love most can become your greatest enemies of all. Books 4 & 5 - Desolation and Reckoning - sold separately

The Finding


Jenna Elizabeth Johnson - 2009
    Humans have been extinct for centuries, trapped by a terrible curse and left to live out their existence in the form of dragons. Despite his doubts, however, Jaax assumes responsibility for the baby girl only to discover that what he has been seeking for so many years has finally been found... Jahrra knows all about the legends and sagas of Oescienne, but never in her wildest dreams would she believe that she played a part in one of them. She’s far too busy dodging the bullies at school and seeking out new adventures with her friends to worry about what secrets her dragon mentor might be keeping from her, or that her every move is being watched by something living in the forest surrounding her home.But the secrets run deep, and as Jahrra fights to earn her place in this extraordinary world, she will begin to unravel the truth of it all: that she isn’t as safe as she thought she was, that danger lurks around every corner, and that her role in this unfurling tale is far more significant than she could possibly imagine.

The Book of Deacon


Joseph R. Lallo - 2010
    The find will change her life, sending her on an adventure of soldiers and rebels, wizards and warriors, and beasts both noble and monstrous. Each step will bring her closer to the truth of her potential, of the war, and of the fate of her world.

Avondale


Toby Neighbors - 2014
    Only a few fortified cities high in the mountains have survived. The lands below lay covered by a permanent barrier of mist and only huge, monstrous beasts ever rise up above the cloud bank.In Avondale, the Earl’s son harbors a secret. Magic is blamed for the cataclysm and outlawed in the high mountain cities, but Tiberius longs to become a wizard. When he finally begins to practice magic, he knows his time in the wondrous city of Avondale is short, but where can he go? What lies beneath the mists that surround his mountaintop home? And if he ventures out of the city, how will he survive in a land that no one has ever returned from?Avondale is the first book in new epic fantasy series that explores a fantastic world full of wonder and more than a little danger. It’s a fast paced adventure, with strong characters and magical places that you won’t want to put down. Written by Toby Neighbors, author of the best selling series The Five Kingdoms, Avondale is a fresh, new, high action fantasy novel that will sweep you away into a world of magic and wizards, swords and sorcery.

Knight Errant


Anthony Reynolds - 2008
    When the Lord of Bastonne falls ill, his two sons Calard and Bertelis are plunged into conflict as suppressed rivalries surface. As a horde of goblins swarms out of the forests, the knights gather their forces to repel the foul beasts, little suspecting that the true enemy has yet to reveal itself.

Tree of Ages


Sara C. Roethle - 2015
    The lines are faltering, undoing the old and bringing life to the new. Trees will fall, and changed earth will be left in their place. A storm is coming."Finn doesn't remember much about her previous life, and in a world that has been changed by the wars of the Tuatha De, where trust is hard to come by, answers are even more difficult to find. Little does she know, an unknown evil tugs on the strings of fate, and the answers she so desperately seeks may be more important than she could have ever imagined.

Griffin's Daughter


Leslie Ann Moore - 2007
    An ancient evil searches for her.A young girl lives as a social outcast due to her mixed human and elven blood. To escape an arranged marriage, Jelena flees into the unknown on a quest to find her elven father. Her journey takes her on an unexpected adventure of magic, danger, and most startling of all - true love.

Transgression


Randall Ingermanson - 2000
    in archaeology and decided to take a break from your crummy life for the summer by working on an archaeological dig in Israel?What if you met a great guy in Jerusalem who happened to be a world-famous theoretical physicist working on a crazy idea to build a wormhole that might make time-travel possible … someday?What if he had a nutball colleague who turned the theory into reality — and then decided to use YOU as a guinea pig to make sure it was safe?What if the nutball had a gun and went on a crazy, impossible mission to hunt down and kill the apostle Paul?It’s A.D. 57 when Rivka Meyers walks out of the wormhole into a world she’s only studied in books. Ancient Jerusalem is awesome! Rivka can’t believe her friend Ari Kazan’s theory actually worked. But when she runs into Ari’s wacko colleague, Damien West, in the Temple, Rivka starts to smell a rat. When Ari discovers that Damien and Rivka have gone through a wormhole that’s on the edge of collapse, he has to make a horrible choice: Follow them and risk never coming back — or lose the woman of his dreams forever.About The Book:Transgression is a time-travel suspense novel that mixes science, history, religion, romance, and suspense. It’s about learning to stand up for yourself, when you just want to be let alone. It’s about making hard decisions. It’s about asking whether life has meaning and whether God exists — and becoming a badass fighter for justice, even if you don’t have the answers. Transgression won the 2001 Christy award for best futuristic novel in Christian fiction. Transgression will take you on a wretched, miserable, dangerous vacation through the filthy, bandit-ridden streets of first-century Jerusalem. Transgression is the first novel in the City of God series:Book 1: Transgression (A.D. 57)Book 2: Premonition (A.D. 57-62)Book 3: Retribution (A.D. 62-66)Excerpt:Rivka turned and ran. “Ari!” she screamed. “Help!”She raced outside into the sunlight, sprinted madly through a dark grove of trees with gnarled branches. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her ragged breath rasped in her ears. Was he following? Faster! Tears fogged her eyes. Her leather sandals tore at her feet. Trying to look back over her shoulder, she tripped and fell. Dust flew up all around her.Coughing, she clambered to her feet and dared to look back. The man was nowhere in sight.Rivka panted until she caught her breath. Her left wrist throbbed from the fall. She massaged it while she squinted into the trees, afraid that the man might be lurking in the shadows. Nothing happened.Finally, she turned around to get her bearings.She blinked twice and then stared. Across a small valley massive stone walls rose. Herodian masonry. Jerusalem limestone. Towering white walls. It looked like…But that was impossible. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply three times, and opened them again. Absurd. Had she gone loony or something?Rivka had visited the Temple Mount twice and studied hundreds of pictures during three years of graduate school. But she had never seen it looking like this. So pure. So spotless.So new.

Old Nathan


David Drake - 1991
    The forces of evil are poised to prey on the folk of the hamlets and hollows: witches, demons, and red-handed men—but first they'll have to overcome Old Nathan the Wizard.He doesn't claim much for his magical powers, but they're real enough for what they are—and besides, he hasn't forgotten how to use his long flintlock rifle ....Enter the gritty, realistic world of Old Nathan, a backwoodsman who talks to animals and says he'll face The Devil himself-and who in the end will have to face The Devil in very fact.

Jigsaw


Ted Miller Brogden - 2009
    On a rare, sober day he begins a casual search through college yearbooks and yellowed courthouse records in hopes of finding the one who got away. Instead, an unrecorded codicil suggests their one union was fruitful and reveals a possible heir to an old-moneyed family used to scams and scammers making claims against the estate. After run-ins with a cabal of bankers, lawyers, in-laws, outlaws, and even the F.A.A. Cape begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together...

The Fall of Gondolin


J.R.R. Tolkien - 2018
    There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwë, chief of the Valar: he is called the Lord of Waters, of all seas, lakes, and rivers under the sky. But he works in secret in Middle-earth to support the Noldor, the kindred of the Elves among whom were numbered Húrin and Túrin Turambar.   Central to this enmity of the gods is the city of Gondolin, beautiful but undiscoverable. It was built and peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule and fled to Middle-earth. Turgon King of Gondolin is hated and feared above all his enemies by Morgoth, who seeks in vain to discover the marvellously hidden city, while the gods in Valinor in heated debate largely refuse to intervene in support of Ulmo’s desires and designs.   Into this world comes Tuor, cousin of Túrin, the instrument of Ulmo’s designs. Guided unseen by him Tuor sets out from the land of his birth on the fearful journey to Gondolin, and in one of the most arresting moments in the history of Middle-earth the sea-god himself appears to him, rising out of the ocean in the midst of a storm. In Gondolin he becomes great; he is wedded to Idril, Turgon’s daughter, and their son is Eärendel, whose birth and profound importance in days to come is foreseen by Ulmo.   At last comes the terrible ending. Morgoth learns through an act of supreme treachery all that he needs to mount a devastating attack on the city, with Balrogs and dragons and numberless Orcs. After a minutely observed account of the fall of Gondolin, the tale ends with the escape of Túrin and Idril, with the child Eärendel, looking back from a cleft in the mountains as they flee southward, at the blazing wreckage of their city. They were journeying into a new story, the Tale of Eärendel, which Tolkien never wrote, but which is sketched out in this book from other sources.   Following his presentation of Beren and Lúthien Christopher Tolkien has used the same ‘history in sequence’ mode in the writing of this edition of The Fall of Gondolin. In the words of J.R.R. Tolkien, it was ‘the first real story of this imaginary world’ and, together with Beren and Lúthien and The Children of Húrin, he regarded it as one of the three ‘Great Tales’ of the Elder Days.

The Dark Citadel


Michael Wallace - 2011
    They flee west to enlist the aid of griffin riders, an order of wizards, and a band of ascetic knights to come to the city's defense.Meanwhile, a young queen named Kallia leads a heroic struggle to keep both her city and body free from the dark wizard's cruel embrace.The first book of a new epic fantasy series by Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Michael Wallace, The Dark Citadel combines a rich fantasy world with page-turning plot and flawed, heroic charactersBooks in the Dark Citadel series:Book 1: The Dark CitadelBook 2: The Free KingdomsBook 3: The Golden GriffinBook 4: The Warrior KingBook 5: War of Wizards (spring, 2015)

Altdorf


J.K. Swift - 2011
    A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition. A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests... and an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all.At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.Thomas Schwyzer, released from his vows by the Grandmaster of the Hospitallers, returns to the land of his birth a stranger. Once a leader of men, and captain of the Order's most famous war galley, he now settles into the simple life of a ferryman. He believes this new role to be God's reward for years of faithful service fighting the Infidel in Outremer.Seraina, considered a witch by most, a healer by some, is a young woman with a purpose. A Priestess of the Old Religion, and the last Druid disciple of the Helvetii Celts, she has been gifted by the Great Weave to see what others cannot. Her people need her guidance and protection now more than ever. For Duke Leopold of Habsburg, in his efforts to control the St. Gotthard Pass, builds a great Austrian fortress in Altdorf. Once finished, the Habsburg occupation will be complete, but the atrocities visited upon her people will have just begun.