Winner of the 2013 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy!

Mitchell Hogan, an imaginative new talent, makes his debut with the acclaimed first installment in the epic Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, A Crucible of Souls, a mesmerizing tale of high fantasy that combines magic, malevolence, and mystery.

The authors definitive edition

When young Caldan’s parents are brutally slain, the boy is raised by monks who initiate him into the arcane mysteries of sorcery.

Growing up plagued by questions about his past, Caldan vows to discover who his parents were, and why they were violently killed. The search will take him beyond the walls of the monastery, into the unfamiliar and dangerous chaos of city life. With nothing to his name but a pair of mysterious heirlooms and a handful of coins, he must prove his talent to become apprenticed to a guild of sorcerers.

But the world outside the monastery is a darker place than he ever imagined, and his treasured sorcery has disturbing depths he does not fully understand. As a shadowed evil manipulates the unwary and forbidden powers are unleashed, Caldan is plunged into an age-old conflict that will bring the world to the edge of destruction.

Soon, he must choose a side, and face the true cost of uncovering his past.

A novice sorcerer may hold the key to saving his world—or be the instrument of its destruction—in Mitchell Hogan's Blood of Innocents, the second book in The Sorcery Ascendant Sequence, a mesmerizing saga of high fantasy that combines magic, malevolence, and mystery.

Anasoma, jewel of the Mahruse Empire, has fallen.

As orphaned, monk-raised Caldan and his companions flee the city, leaving behind their hopes for a new beginning, horrors from the time of the Shattering begin to close in.

With Miranda’s mind broken by forbidden sorcery, Caldan does the unthinkable to save her: he breaks the most sacrosanct laws of the Protectors. But when the emperor’s warlocks arrive to capture him, Caldan realizes that his burgeoning powers may be more of a curse than a blessing, and the enemies assailing the empire may be rivaled by more sinister forces within.

And soon, the blood of innocents may be on Caldan’s own hands.

 

In Mitchell Hogan's gritty and breathtaking conclusion to the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence—the award-winning fantasy series that started with A Crucible of Souls and Blood of Innocents—a young sorcerer must learn to wield his extraordinary powers to defeat two warring empires.

In a battle of armies and sorcerers, empires will fall.

After young Caldan’s parents were slain, a group of monks raised the boy and initiated him into the arcane mysteries of sorcery. But when the Mahruse Empire was attacked, and the lives of his friends hung in the balance, he was forced to make a dangerous choice.

Now, as two mighty empires face off in a deadly game of supremacy, potent sorcery and creatures from legend have been unleashed. To turn the tide of war and prevent annihilation, Caldan must learn to harness his fearsome and forbidden magic. But as he grows into his powers, the young sorcerer realizes that not all the monsters are on the other side.

And though traps and pitfalls lie ahead, and countless lives are at stake, one thing is certain: to save his life, his friends, and his world, Caldan must risk all to defeat a sorcerer of immense power.

Failure will doom the world.

Success will doom Caldan.

Read samples of Harper Voyager's great science fiction, fantasy, and horror offerings! Featuring an introduction by Chuck Wendig. Excerpts include:

ZER0ES by Chuck Wendig

A CRUCIBLE OF SOULS by Mitchell Hogan

DEPARTURE by AG Riddle

STAR CARRIER: DEEP TIME by Ian Douglas

SHADOW OF EMPIRE by Jay Allan

THE DIABOLICAL MISS HYDE by Viola Carr

THE DAY BEFORE by Liana Brooks

POSITIVE by David Wellington

GLORY MAIN by Henry V. O'Neil

BEYOND REDEMPTION by Michael R. Fletcher

STONEHILL DOWNS by Sarah Remy

MASTER SERGEANT by Mel Odom

KILLING PRETTY by Richard Kadrey

DARK ALCHEMY by Laura Bickle

APEX by Aer-ki Jyr

DESERT RISING by Kelley Grant

THE DROWNING GOD by James Kendley

VEILED EMPIRE by Nathan Garrison

LUNATIONS by J.J. Gadd

HORIZON by Keith Stevenson

 

Caldan ist zehn Jahre alt, als seine Eltern von den Schergen des Kaisers ermordet werden. Er selbst entkommt seinen Verfolgern und findet in einem Kloster Unterschlupf, wo er von den Brüdern in den Grundlagen der Arkanen Magie unterrichtet wird. Doch dann verletzt er Jahre später bei einer Prügelei unwillentlich einen Mitschüler und wird, mit nichts als ein paar Münzen in der Tasche, hinausgeworfen. Von nun an muss er sich alleine durchschlagen – in einer Welt, die noch immer von den Mördern seiner Eltern beherrscht wird. Für Caldan beginnt ein langer und steiniger Weg, an dessen Ende er einer der größten Magier seiner Zeit sein wird ...

Anasoma, die mächtigste Stadt des Kaiserreichs, ist gefallen, und zum zweiten Mal in seinem Leben muss der junge Magier Caldan alles hinter sich lassen und fliehen. Gemeinsam mit seinen Gefährten stellt er sich den Gefahren einer Welt, der ein schrecklicher Krieg bevorsteht und in der das Böse aus Legenden plötzlich lebendig zu werden scheint. Doch es ist vor allem Miranda, um deren Leben Caldan bangt. Ein verbotener Zauber droht sie zu töten. Caldan weiß, dass er sich seiner außergewöhnlichen Begabung stellen muss, um Miranda – und das gesamte Kaiserreich – zu retten. Doch um welchen Preis?