Book picks similar to
Swords Of The Phoenix Queen by A.J. Strickler
dnf
dragons
now
high-fantasy
Dragonsoul
Justin DePaoli - 2018
Tapping into mysterious powers she can't explain or understand, she stays one step ahead of the cursed beasts, but she's quickly losing her grip on sanity.Seeking answers from a bloodwitch of ill-repute, Valeria learns the horrifying secret behind the dragon egg and what its existence means for humanity. Perhaps worse, she discovers who she truly is. Or rather, what she is.With humanity facing the grim threat of extinction, its future lies in Valeria's hands. But harnessing her power may have devastating consequences.
Die, Vol. 1: Fantasy Heartbreaker
Kieron Gillen - 2019
Die is a pitch-black fantasy where a group of forty-something adults have to deal with the returning, unearthly horror they only just survived as teenage role-players. If Kieron's in a rush, he describes it as "Goth Jumanji", but that's only the tip of this obsidian iceberg.Collects issues #1-5 of Die.
The Eyes of the Dragon
Stephen King - 1987
While the land of Delain mourns, the evil wizard Flagg, hatches an unscrupulous plot, which sees the King's eldest son Peter imprisoned for his father's murder, and the youngest son inherit the throne. Only Peter knows the truth about his own innocence and the evil that is Flagg. Only Peter can save Delain from the horror that Flagg has in store. But first, he must escape from the high tower.
The Sequestered Seminary of Sawtorn (Zectas #5)
John Nest - 2016
There, he hopes to find a miracle. As the Brotherhood of Beggars informed him that a Thaumaturge may live there, in the form of the true Magietrois. However, Smoke's quest for his friends' resurrection is on constrained time. Duke Burmistrz of Centzo City plans to attack Verbrannt within a year's time.
A Gilded Cage
Auburn Tempest - 2020
Often both. But when a back-alley brawl leaves me marked with a bizarre Celtic crest on my back, I become a beacon for all things whacked and weird.My dad is obviously freaked when he sees the tat, but he won’t discuss it. So, I do what any stubborn red-headed lass would—I ignore all advice and fly to the Emerald Isle to get answers.And yeah…you know that saying about hindsight being 20/20?True Story.Look out, druid world. This mac Cumhaill is like no other.Will Fiona survive coming into her powers? Will those in Ireland survive Fiona? Can Toronto survive an urban druid and her mythical bear?
A Wizard's Forge
A.M. Justice - 2016
Once she wished to explore the world settled by her spacefaring ancestors; now she thinks only of revenge.Prince Ashel’s carefree days are filled with music, revels, and dreams of a life with Vic. Those hopes die when the thrust of an assassin’s knife drives him to war.The target of Vic’s and Ashel’s wrath is Lornk Korng, a tyrant whose schemes stretch across a continent and a lifetime.A mysterious alien race holds the key to a legendary—and lethal—power. Whoever possesses this power will hold the world in their hands. Will they save it, or doom it?A gripping tale of empowerment and revenge plays out against a breathtaking backdrop of dark fantasy and science fiction.
Finalist, 2017 Next Generation Indie Book AwardsHonorable Mention, 2017 Reader's Favorite Book Awards
A Thirst for Vengeance
Edward M. Knight - 2014
There are few alive with more blood on their hands than me. I have lived a life of degeneracy. I have studied the teachings of the dark mage Helosis and walked the path of the dead. I have been to the shadowrealm and emerged with my soul enact. I have challenged the Black Brotherhood and ridden with the Knights of Valamor as a brother-in-arms. I have spoken to Xune. I've killed indiscriminately—for money, for fame. For vengeance. When I was young, I fell in love with a princess and was punished by her death. I have scampered, begged, and thieved. I have been homeless. I have ruled the greatest city ever built. I began a succession war. I alone know who lifted the Seals of Regor—and how. I was there when magic was restored to this world. If I'd been born in a different age, I would have been the greatest sorcerer known to man. My name is Dagan. This is my tale.
Onyx and Ivory
Mindee Arnett - 2018
It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king years ago. Now Kate lives as an outcast, clinging to the fringes of society as a member of the Relay, the imperial courier service. Only those most skilled in riding and bow hunting ride for the Relay; and only the fastest survive, for when dark falls, the nightdrakes—deadly flightless dragons—come out to hunt. Fortunately, Kate has a secret edge: she is a wilder, born with magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. But it’s this magic that she needs to keep hidden, as being a wilder is forbidden, punishable by death or exile. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by nightdrakes in broad daylight—the only survivor her childhood friend, her first love, the boy she swore to forget, the boy who broke her heart.The high king’s second son, Corwin Tormane, never asked to lead. Even as he waits for the uror—the once-in-a-generation ritual to decide which of the king’s children will succeed him—he knows it’s always been his brother who will assume the throne. And that’s fine by him. He’d rather spend his days away from the palace, away from the sight of his father, broken with sickness from the attempt on his life. But the peacekeeping tour Corwin is on has given him too much time to reflect upon the night he saved his father’s life—the night he condemned the would-be killer to death and lost the girl he loved. Which is why he takes it on himself to investigate rumors of unrest in one of the remote city-states, only for his caravan to be attacked—and for him to be saved by Kate.With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin have to put the past behind them. The threat of drakes who attack in the daylight is only the beginning of a darker menace stirring in the kingdom—one whose origins have dire implications for Kate’s father’s attack upon the king and will thrust them into the middle of a brewing civil war in the kingdom of Rime.
The Chronicles of Amberdrake
Loren K. Jones - 2019
Drake Standralson is granted a gift by the Chaos god as a reward. Drake rashly says, "I want to be a Mage. The most powerful Mage that ever was." His wish is granted. The catch -- the most powerful mage that ever was happened to be the dragon Dandarshandrake. Join Amberdrake as he explores his world on dragon wings. Cheer his triumphs. Cry for his failures. See the boy grow into a man as the world changes around him. After all, now that his lifespan was measured in centuries, he could do anything. Or could he?
Ice Mage
Julia Gray - 1998
The remote and wild land of Tiguafaya is on the edge of chaos. The menacing volcanoes that dominate the landscape grumble and threaten destruction. The repulsive fireworms, the marauding pirates, and the ancient dragons grow bolder by the minute. The corrupt and ineffectual government is paralyzed and helpless in the face of all the dangers. The country's only hope for survival lies with a group of young rebels known as the Firebrands. Led by the lovers, Andrin and Ico, and the half-mad musician, Vargo, the Firebrands are desperately fighting back. Using the once-revered but now lost arts of magic against the overwhelming odds, they are all that stand between Tiguafaya and total devastation.
Dream-Weaver
Jonathan Wylie - 1991
Yet, as the armies of nightmare draw closer, she discovers that war is not the ultimate evil.
The Dark of the Moon
E.S. Bell - 2017
On this new world of islands swathed in seas, sailors are kings, and the moon god holds dominion... Selena Koren is the moon god’s most powerful Paladin; a skilled warrior and blessed with the most potent magic. She also bears the god’s terrible wrath. Ten years before, during the bloody Zak’reth War, Selena summoned the seas to destroy her enemy's armada. The Zak’reth screamed and drowned and died, but so too did four hundred innocents. In its fury, the god smote Selena with a terrible wound: a crescent-shaped hole in her chest that breathes its icy breath every moment of every day so that she never knows warmth. Now, her temple sends Selena on a quest to kill two powerful dark priests. This alone, she is assured, will close her terrible wound. The thought of killing without provocation rattles her soul but Selena can suffer the cold no longer. Bloody, bloody BastianKilled the captain…Sebastian Vaas is the world’s deadliest assassin. Bards compose ballads of his depravity; children sing rhymes in the streets. His bloody vengeance against the Zak’reth who murdered his family is legendary. But Sebastian is done with bloodshed. For the gold, he takes one last job and is stricken to learn his mark is Selena, the same warrior who sent hundreds of Zak’reth to their graves. Now he must choose—to murder the woman who ended the war, or betray the dark forces who hired him. You will take a voyage…With another war looming on the horizon, Selena and Sebastian, along with a motley crew of mute sailors and criminals, demons and dragonmen, sail across Lunos; across oceans where maelstroms wrought of magic and pirates threaten at every turn, and where the seas hold secrets in their dark depths. Old secrets thought to be as dead as the dragons who broke the world, but are coming back to life…The Dark of the Moon is Book I in the Chronicles of Lunos saga, an epic nautical fantasy
Knights of Dark Renown
David Gemmell - 1989
Their hearts were beautiful; their armor was beyond compare. They were greater than princes, more than men.But they were gone, disappeared through a demon-haunted gateway between worlds. Only one held back -- Manannan, whose every instinct told him to stay. Now he was the coward knight, and in torment.Murder and black magic beset the land. Rumors circulated that the king was enchanted, changed, that his soul was dead . . . and that a reign of terror was about to begin.Now Manannan realized he would have to face his darkest fears: he had no choice but to ride through that dreaded gate and seek out his vanished companions.And the secret he would learn there would tear his soul apart . . . ."A sharp, distinctive medieval fantasy. Dramatic, colorful, taut." -- Locus
Dark Enchantment
Kathy Morgan - 2014
On the night her father dies, he appears to her with cryptic instructions to return to her birthplace. Upon her arrival in Ireland, she finds her fate intricately intertwined with that of a tall, dark and enigmatic Irishman: a man bearing an uncanny resemblance to someone she grew up with. In her dreams. Caleb MacNamara is the Chief Brehon of the Túatha de Danann. Plagued by a primeval enchantment, the males of their race are forbidden to mate with a mere mortal women—the penalty for doing so, the woman’s gruesome death. After three thousand years, the evil geis has reached its deadline. And unless a mortal woman appears and succeeds in an impossible quest, a demonic abomination will be released upon all humankind. When Caleb meets Arianna, he recognizes the little mortal as the woman who has haunted his nights. Could the lucid dreams mean she’s the woman foreshadowed by the sacred scrolls? And have the Fates chosen him to champion her against Anathema, the Beast shackled by a divine slumber, buried deep within the bowels of the earth? If so, he knows he’ll have to control his ravening lust for the girl...or risk killing her himself.