Book picks similar to
Death Mage's Ascent by Jonathan Bender


fantasy
magic
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Blade & Rose


Miranda Honfleur - 2017
    Which one will she save? Elementalist Rielle hasn't heard from her best friend in far too long. Yet no one at the Tower of Magic seems to care about Olivia’s silence, or the curtain of secrecy surrounding the distant capital. Before Rielle can investigate, she's assigned a strange new mission: escort a paladin named Jon across the kingdom. When whispers reveal mercenaries have killed the king, taken the capital, and that no one is coming to help, Rielle can’t leave Olivia in peril. But as infamous mages and deadly assassins hunt Jon, she can’t leave him unprotected either—especially as she finds herself falling for his strength, his passion, and his uncompromising goodness. Her past returns to haunt her, a werewolf stalks their steps, and an ancient evil is gathering, yet the restraints forbidding their love strain and snap one by one. Saving Olivia and the kingdom means defying orders and sacrificing her every ambition, and could mean losing the man who's become so much more to her than a mission. Which will she choose: her best friend and the kingdom, or the love of her life? Dive into a medieval world sensual and dark, full of magic and greed, love and blades, where factions vie for influence and there are no easy choices.

Everflame


Dylan Lee Peters - 2012
    Over time, humans lost their connection with a world they had been created to protect, they forgot the ways of their ancient creators, and accepted the Tyrant’s lies as truths from the mouth of a god.  Now, deep in the forests that surround Gray Mountain, two bears find a small child that is abandoned and left for dead. The bears name him Evercloud, raise him as a member of their kingdom, and teach the boy of the Ancients, all underneath the light of the Everflame, the flame that burns atop Gray Mountain as a monument to the integrity and spirit of the bears.  As Evercloud grows, rumors reach the bear kingdom of the Ancients’ return, and now the young man must leave his home to find them and help save the world he holds dear.  Will Evercloud lose himself in the darkness of the Great Tyrant’s lies, or will he have the courage to judge his own heart, the strength to master the darkness, and the faith to follow his purpose until it burns within his heart like the Everflame?

The Wizard of Time


G.L. Breedon - 2011
    When he dreams one night that he will drown, he knows upon waking it is only a matter of time before his dream becomes reality.Plucked from the timeline of history at the moment of his death and considered dead by his parents and friends, Gabriel mourns the loss of his family as he trains to become an apprentice time mage -- part of an elite team of wizards who travel throughout history to fight the War of Time and Magic.When a mission to stop the creation of an alternate reality fails, Gabriel is revealed as the Seventh True Mage, able to use all six forms of magic. He soon finds himself hunted by three dark mages who hope to use him to rule the whole of the Primary Continuum.From an alternate Windsor Castle to Victorian London, from the Aztec temples of 1487 to the Greek island of Samos in 320 BCE, from Scotland in the Middle Ages to the battle fields of Alexander the Great -- Gabriel struggles to master the different magics and fulfill the responsibility of being the Seventh True Mage as he joins the battle to protect the timeline of history in The Wizard of Time.

A Queen in Hiding


Sarah Kozloff - 2020
    Orphaned, exiled and hunted, Cérulia, Princess of Weirandale, must master the magic that is her birthright, become a ruthless guerilla fighter, and transform into the queen she is destined to be.But to do it she must win the favor of the spirits who play in mortal affairs, assemble an unlikely group of rebels, and wrest the throne from a corrupt aristocracy whose rot has spread throughout her kingdom.

Daughters of the Storm


Kim Wilkins - 2014
    Brett, and Robin Hobb.FIVE ROYAL SISTERS. ONE CROWN.They are the daughters of a king. Though they share the same royal blood, they could not be more different. Bluebell is a proud warrior, stronger than any man and with an ironclad heart to match. Rose's heart is all too passionate: She is the queen of a neighboring kingdom, who is risking everything for a forbidden love. The twins: vain Ivy, who lives for admiration, and zealous Willow, who lives for the gods. And Ash, who is discovering a dangerous talent for magic that might be a gift--or a curse.But when their father is stricken by a mysterious ailment, they must come together on a desperate journey to save him and prevent their treacherous stepbrother from seizing the throne. Their mission: find the powerful witch who can cure the king. But to succeed on their quest, they must overcome their differences, and hope that the secrets they hide from one another and the world are never brought to light. Because if this royal family breaks, it could destroy the kingdom.

Elder Lich Saga: Awakening


Silvercockroach - 2018
    Along the way, he will have countless encounters, and he will meet numerous adversaries. Follow him on his journey to fulfill the last wish of his master. Follow him on his journey as he realizes that he is more than just a creature created to perish as a shield. This is the story of Jiablu, the strongest undead caster.

Weapon of Flesh


Chris A. Jackson - 2005
    He is the pinnacle of his master's magical and martial arts, a true weapon of flesh, all according to plan. Until the plan goes awry...The Master is gone and the weapon is free. And in a dangerous world, a weapon does what a weapon is made to do. Or does he?Alone for the first time, Lad's future is now in his own hands. He has a destiny, but knows not what it is. Undeterred, he heads out into the world, and the weapon begins to become a person...But a person is not what the Grandfather of Assassins has invested a fortune and nearly two decades to achieve. When his weapon does not arrive as promised, the Grandfather sets loose his hunters.The only problem? No one thought a weapon of flesh would fall in love.Now only death will release Lad from his servitude and save the woman he loves--the Grandfather's death...or his own.

The Awakening


Stuart Meczes - 2012
    A geeky, social pariah, he's the victim of constant bullying at school. His home life isn't much better with a stepfather who resents him and a half brother who is better than him at everything.But that all changes the day the mysterious and beautiful Gabriella De Luca walks into his life. Everyone wants to know her, to be with her. But she is interested in Alex.Because Alex is different.Soon afterwards he is thrown into a world he never thought possible. A world where he and others like him are the last line of defence. A world where an ancient unspeakable evil lurks. Evil which seeks to consume him.DILECTI SURGEMUS - SOCII POLLEMUS(Chosen we rise - Allied we prevail)

The Emperor's Knife


Mazarkis Williams - 2011
    Geometric patterns spread across the skin, until you die in agony, or become a Carrier, doing the bidding of an evil intelligence, the Pattern Master. Anyone showing the tell-tale marks is put to death; that is Emperor Beyon's law...but now the pattern is running over the Emperor's own arms. His body servants have been executed, he ignores his wives, but he is doomed, for soon the pattern will reach his face. While Beyon's agents scour the land for a cure, Sarmin, the Emperor's only surviving brother, awaits his bride, Mesema, a windreader from the northern plains. Unused to the Imperial Court's stifling protocols and deadly intrigues, Mesema has no one to turn to but an aging imperial assassin, the Emperor's Knife. As long-planned conspiracies boil over into open violence, the invincible Pattern Master appears from the deep desert. Only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary killer, and a young girl from the steppes who once saw a path in a pattern -- a path that might save them all.

Alora: The Wander-Jewel


Tamie Dearen - 2014
    Only while in the shower. And only of one stranger: a handsome boy with long brown hair, intense green eyes, and the oddest clothes. A boy who vanishes whenever she opens her eyes. And then one day, he doesn't…Alora's safe world soon turns upside-down as she's thrust into another realm where her soulmate waits, magic abounds, and unfathomable evil seeks to claim her."A captivating, young-adult fantasy that will keep turning the pages and leave you ready for more!"

The Silent Tower


Barbara Hambly - 1986
    In her latest novel, The Silent Tower, Barbara Hambly has written a complex tale of dark magic, mystery and deadly danger involving a woman computer programmer who struggles to help a condemned wizard save--or perhaps destroy?--two worlds...

Sixty-One Nails


Mike Shevdon - 2009
    A dark magic will be unleashed by the Untainted...Unless a new hero can be found. Neverwhere's faster, smarter brother has arrived.Sixty-One Nails follows Niall Petersen, from a suspected heart attack on the London Underground, into the hidden world of the Feyre, an uncanny place of legend that lurks just beyond the surface of everyday life. The Untainted, the darkest of the Seven Courts, have made their play for power, and unless Niall can recreate the ritual of the Sixty-One Nails, their dark dominion will enslave all of the Feyre, and all of humankind too.

Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony


Brian McKinley - 2011
    When his first one-night-stand, Caroline, turns out to be a true vampire on the run, he jumps at the chance to leave his ordinary life and join her as a "child of the night." The honeymoon ends, however, when Caroline's brutal Creator Sebastian enslaves them on his island estate and Avery must confront the dehumanizing reality behind his dreams. In order to survive, Caroline and Avery take their place as servants in Sebastian's household during a gathering of the most powerful vampires on Earth, the Hegemony, and soon find themselves involved in the myriad schemes, plots, and revenges that form the night-to-night existence of The Order. A society of wealth, power, and inhuman decadence whose existence is protected by human complicity and disbelief, The Order is the immortal aristocracy hidden behind the giant corporations and political leaders of the world. Sebastian, however, has a plan that will change The Order forever and shatter human civilization. A fast-paced thriller that both re-imagines and pays tribute to the traditional vampire, Ancient Blood is a story of love, ambition, sacrifice, and betrayal that is frighteningly human.

We Are Blood and Thunder


Kesia Lupo - 2019
    A young woman, Lena, running for her life, convicted of being a mage and sentenced to death. Her only way to survive is to trust those she has been brought up to fear - those with magic.On the other side of the locked gates is a masked lady, Constance, determined to find a way back in. She knows only too well how the people of Duke's Forest loathe magic. Years ago she escaped before her powers were discovered. But now she won't hide who she is any longer.A powerful and terrifying storm cloud unites them. It descends over the dukedom and devastates much in its wake. But this is more than a thunderstorm. This is a spell, and the truth behind why it has been cast is more sinister than anyone can imagine ... Only Lena and Constance hold the key to destroying the spell. Though neither of them realise it, they need each other. They are the blood and they have the thunder within.

Soul Born


Kevin James Breaux - 2010
    When a mysterious warlord embarks on a conquest to destroy the lands of Illyia Opal seizes an opportunity to step out from the shadows of her instructors and take her rightful spot among them. Tala, an alluring young elf, was banished from her tribe, hunted and nearly killed by the beasts that dwell in the deep forests, but more than anything else she is a survivor. Joining forces with an ancient elemental power Tala finds herself in the center of an unrelenting human war. She never wanted any of this. Flesh like leather and bone as strong as steel Karn, a veteran from the first kingdom to fall, is fueled by vengeance. While pushing ever headlong into battle Karn begins to recall memories of another life; ghosts that haunt his dreams. Through death of soul, their world is born.