Armageddon Series

Armageddon Series is serialized epic fantasy, released as numbered chapters and narrated as prose. The narration keeps the texture of written fiction: dialogue tags, descriptions of weather and architecture, and a character's passing thoughts all stay in, so it plays much like a novel read aloud. The central figure is Turim, a young dragonrider in a world of knight orders, dragon wings, hired clans and ambassadors. Chapter titles carry two arc names, Black Dawn and Whitesteel Peaks, and the chapters under each have their own texture. In Black Dawn, travel rarely goes smoothly. In 'Black Dawn - Chapter 7: Centerland', Turim and his companions walk through the night, his hand resting on his sword hilt, braced for the pale ones to appear, until a signpost for Robin's Road gives him some confidence back. Other chapters take to the air aboard the Cloud Racer, apparently a former merchant vessel whose old masts now hold its propellers, with Sympha at the helm. Griffons with jaguar bodies and hawk heads come at the ship, and rangers unsure what a bowgun even is get a rushed lesson. The ship comes down hard in a forest, smoke pouring from its gears, while a druid sits cross-legged on deck with her eyes closed and her lips moving silently. The losses are not glossed over. Turim stands silent in a clearing remembering Warren, who fell somewhere in that forest, and one chapter closes on Sympha in a cage and Turim sunk in guilt and grief. In 'Black Dawn - Chapter 27: The Light and the Dark', a rider named Sand stands beside his dragon after fighting that has taken most of his wing. The Knights of the Hawk are then pushed off their wall and back into the keep as Grand Master Strongthorne calls the retreat. The same chapter also carries a quieter, stranger passage, with Turim standing in a white light before a voice that fills him with courage and compassion. Whitesteel Peaks moves some of the conflict indoors. Turim and a companion ride through falling snow into the city of Daltaria, under an archway hung with banners and tapestries. Then comes the Council of Races, a body that sets taxes and laws, judges major disputes and advises some of the knight factions. Questioned by ambassadors, Turim answers only what he is asked, holds back what he knows about a set of scrolls and about Sympha, and privately suspects someone in the room hired the Black Talon clan. A red-haired ambassador in a beret keeps staring at him. The narration also cuts away from Turim to other fronts, including a squad of dragoons, Quint among them, who have already broken Steelbone's raiders by the time a group of executors arrives. What holds it together is Turim's sense of duty, sharpened by his conviction that every day he delays, people die in captivity in the North.