The Knave of Souls - Fantasy - Sequel to The Jack of Souls
This is the sequel to The Jack of Souls. As of today, March 12, 2017, it is95% complete. S…
The Jack of Souls (Multi-award winner!)
**************************************************************************************An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. *************************************************************************************** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year!*** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! **** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! **** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! **** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! **** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! **** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but...*** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! *MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIESThe Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.…