The fantasy swordsmen that populate Dave Duncan’s novels are among E-Reads’ bestselling books. Now comes Longdirk, a Highlands outlaw whose blade slices through foes like a farmer’s scythe.

All of Europe is ruled by the Khan, whose Golden Horde swept its conquering way across Europe in 1244. The Scottish outlaw Toby Strangerson, known as Longdirk, is ruled by an even harsher master. He is possessed by a “hob,” a demon spirit murderous as a child although inherently neither good not evil.

In Demon Rider, the middle volume of the trilogy, Toby wants his freedom–and the spirit of the tyrant-demon Nevil, ensorceled in amethyst, can be traded for the exorcism of the hob. In order to make the exchange, though, Toby and his friend and ally Hamish must face the hexer Oreste on his own ground, in the dank and fetid dungeons of Barcelona, where souls are racked and tortured and destroyed on the relentless wheel of the Inquisition.

Demon Sword and its sequels Demon Rider and Demon Knight were originally published under the pen name Ken Hood but Duncan is stepping out from behind his shield.

Watch the Dave Duncan author page for release information about the third and final volume, Demon Knight. You’ll also see some two dozen fantasy treats from a brilliant master available for download or print paperback.

Dave Duncan’s “Handful of Men” quartet is now available in Kindle.

Picking up the story where his “”Man of His Word” trilogy left off, Duncan launches a new and magical adventure in Pandemia. The titles in order of publication are The Cutting Edge, Upland Outlaws, The Stricken Field and The Living God. All may be viewed and ordered on the Dave Duncan page on the E-Reads website.

The great adventure chronicled in the “Man of His Word” quartet ended happily enough. The good folk of Krasnegar discovered that a beautiful princess could, indeed, succeed her royal father and rule in her own right, and rule very well, too. And when Queen Inos married Rap, the former stableboy, he turned out to be a very good king. He never admitted that he was a sorcerer, and everyone knew that Rap was a Man of His Word, so that was all right.

The years passed. Rap and Inos raised a family, prospering in their remote little kingdom. But trouble was brewing in the great world outside. The aged Imperor grew ever more erratic, more tyrannical. His grandson Shandie, the boy Rap had befriended, was now a great soldier, struggling to suppress ever-growing upheaval in the borderlands while he waited to inherit the throne. Strange prophecies of upheaval and disaster spread. When the rumors reached even to Krasnegar, Rap scoffed at them as superstition–until one night a god appeared and confirmed that the truth was likely to be far worse. On his travels long ago, Rap himself had made a terrible blunder. Because of that, the world of Pandemia was now poised on the brink of utter disaster. The last thing Rap wanted was another adventure.

That’s too bad, because want it or not, he’s about to have one.  It all begins in The Cutting Edge.

Thanks to E-Reads’ reissue program Dave Duncan is at last receiving the recognition he has earned and deserved over a career packed with stirring, witty, romantic and thrilling works impeccably narrated as if woven on the loom of a master textile artist.  His “Seventh Sword” novels are far and away the biggest selling fantasy trilogy in E-Reads’ history. You can find them and almost two dozen other Duncans on his author page.

Now comes the breathtaking quartet of novels known as “A Man of His Word“, consisting of Magic Casement, Faery Lands Forlorn, Perilous Seas and Emperor and Clown, with handsomely redesigned covers for both the e-book and the paperback editions.

A princess and a stableboy? It sounds like the worst sort of hackneyed formula romance. Think again, for A Man of His Word may well be the most original fantasy you will ever read. Duncan’s astonishing magic manifests itself in utterly unexpected ways, some of which the late Lester del Rey admitted he had not met in fifty years as writer and editor. The world itself is unique, for there are no humans in Pandemia, only imps, elves, gnomes, jotnar, and many more, all of whom you will recognize as “human”.

In the first book, Magic Casement, the tale begins gently, even slowly, with Inosolan enjoying an idyllic childhood in a tiny backwater kingdom, too carefree and innocent even to understand that the feelings she shares with her friend Rap are more than friendship. Mystery, menace, and the gods appear in short order, and from then on the story grows in scope and power to straddle the world, and adversity thrusts rapid maturity on Rap and Inos. Populated by unforgettable characters–Aunt Kade, Little Chicken, Doctor Sagorn, and many more–Pandemia is an incredible world of credible people and infinite surprises.

One reader commented

“I think this is my favorite fantasy series of all time. The reluctant swordsman series was great, but A Man of His Word was a revelation — up until this series, I had no idea of fantasy’s potential. I remember reviews at the time complaining that Duncan’s series had subverted the fantasy genre, but for me it was the series that saved us from endless Tolkien rewrites. There was nothing like it before; not even the great James Branch Cabell comes close to Duncan’s originality in this series. Once you start the first book, you canot put any of it down. It is totally addictive. A must have for any fantasy fan. You don’t know the genre at all if you don’t know this series.”

The fantasy swordsmen that populate Dave Duncan’s novels are among E-Reads’ bestselling books. Now comes Longdirk, a Highlands outlaw whose blade slices through foes like a farmer’s scythe.

In Demon Sword, the first novel in the “Years of Longdirk” trilogy, all of Europe is under the control of the Khan, whose conquering armies swept across the West in 1244. Scotland, in addition, lies under the heel of England. Young Toby Strangerson, a half-English bastard, reared by a witchwife, wants only to shed his hated “Sassenach” blood and free his beloved highlands.

Toby wields a sword as the outlaw Longdirk. The sword can cut down men like so many stalks of corn. But stranger winds are swirling and howling across the lochs, eldritch winds that are ridden by “hobs” and “wisps” and demons. The enemy Sassenach king is also a sorcerer. His demon soul needs a body and his Black Arts can free Europe from the Khan’s Golden Horde.

Demon Sword and its sequels Demon Rider and Demon Knight were originally published under the pen name Ken Hood but Duncan is stepping out from behind his shield.

Watch the Dave Duncan author page for release information about Demon Rider and Demon Knight. You’ll also see some two dozen fantasy treats from a brilliant master available for download or print paperback..

The Monster War: A Tale of the Kings’ Blades by Dave Duncan

The King’s Blades ride again! Originally issued as a young adult trilogy entitled The King’s Daggers (Sir Stalwart, The Crooked House and Silvercloak), The Monster War works perfectly as a single novel.

The story fills a gap in the first Blades novel, The Gilded Chain, when King Ambrose sought to shut down the evil sorcery of the “Elementaries” and the sorcerers fought back by trying to kill him. The same great characters are all here: Ambrose himself, Grand Master, and Blades Durendal, Bandit, and Snake. Appearing for the first time are Sir Stalwart, the only Blade who does not bear a binding scar, and Emerald of the White Sisters, the only girl ever enrolled in Ironhall. The action wanders across Chivial from the White Sisters’ headquarters at Oakendown, to Grandon, and into the heart of Ironhall, for the evil penetrates even there.

If you missed this one the first time (and most Blades fans did) then here is your chance to join the action as the King’s Blades ride again! And if there are some gaps in your collection of Dave Duncan’s fantasy and science fiction, visit his author page for a host of great selections.

And if you’ve become hooked on King’s Blades, you can read the two sequels to The Gilded Chain: Lord of the Fire lands and Sky of Swords.

RC

Hero! by Dave Duncan is space opera at its finest and most action-filled, from the bestselling author of fantasy quests, epic tales and swashbuckling adventures. E-Reads has 21 of them.

Vaun, born a peasant in the stinking mud flats of Ult, a thriving colony planet, claws his way to survival and fame by becoming the toughest young officer in the Space Patrol. A veteran of the brutal training academy, he seizes opportunities as they arise, leading the first ship out against a surprise attack by the mysterious Brotherhood. He returns to a hero’s welcome as the Brotherhood ship falls to the surface of his home planet in shattered pieces. The Brotherhood is elsewhere unstoppable, though, as neighboring planets, one by one, fall silent, conquered. And then, the Patrol detects a huge spacecraft launched from one of the now-silent worlds and headed for Ult. Facing a challenge greater than he can truly hope to overcome, Vaun sets out to save Ult – for a second time!

RC

In Strings by Dave Duncan, Alya’s hunches are so consistently right they’re surreal. Naturally, someone wants to use her gifts so they can exploit an offworld colony. But Alya meets the grandson of the brilliant and tyrannical director of the world called 4-I and she begins to doubt her own intuition. Cedric has dreamed of becoming a scout and exploring new worlds and when he meets Alya he is more determined than ever to leave 4-I, with her. His grandmother, the director, needs him on 4-I, though, because she has schemes afoot to protect her planet and to cover up a murder and she does not intend to let him go. However, she has underestimated her grandson–and the young woman whose intuition is so strong and whose destiny is linked to Cedric’s.

Strings is another gem in E-Reads treasure chest of 21 Dave Duncans. We urge you to read them all.

RC

In the midst of the horror of the First World War, a stranger falls from nowhere into the mud and death of Flanders battlefield–bruised, babbling, and stark naked with a remarkable story to tell. The Great Game, the timeless diversion of human gods, a ruthless contest of treachery, magic, betrayal and manipulation, created to relieve the tedium of immortality goes on, weaving through the centuries and across dimensions. After three unaccounted years, bearing scars and secrets from a place he calls Nextdoor, Edward Exeter, wrongly accused murderer and fugitive from the law, has reappeared on Earth. Leaving behind a war of spears and arrows, he has come to do service in a war of artillery and poison gas, fleeing powerful forces on both sides of the guarded, mystical border who have other plans for the young patriot, and ancient prophecies they wish to see fulfilled. In another realm, Edward is Liberator–the one who is to “bring death to Death.” Edward wants no part of the prophecy and flees the murderous pursuers from two different worlds. But there is no escaping Destiny and there are obligations to the past and future alike that must be met if civilizations are to survive.

In creating his Great Game trilogy Dave Duncan has stretched his imagination to the limits, and now it’s time for you to match the challenge. But fair warning – the going is intense. It always is in the worlds created by one of fantasy’s greatest masters – and one of E-Reads’ bestselling novelists. Past Imperative flows into Present Tense and then into Future Indefinite, and you’ll scarcely have a moment to catch your breath as you shift from one dimension to another in the sure hands of a great storyteller.

The trilogy is available in e-book and print formats.

RC

This summer, E-Reads is proud to announce that 20 of our best-selling titles are now available in very special editions where you can order them to be printed with your own unique dedication messages and photos, thanks to the Inscribe-It services by Shared Book™, a new E-Reads distribution partner.

E-Reads uses Shared Book to provide consumers with the opportunity to make their favorite books even more valuable and special through the addition of personalized pages. These custom creations allow the reader’s affinity for the book to increase with the new version, an on-demand one-of-a-kind rarity. Simply type your own dedication and upload a picture from your computer when you shop for your book online at our Shared Book print-on-demand webstore.

What does the service cost? Actually, nothing! It’s included in the regular price of the book, and they have free shipping in the U.S.!

Among the titles presently available are our best-selling books by Greg Bear, Janet Dailey, Bill Dietz, Dave Duncan, Hannah Howell and John Norman. What are you waiting for? Buy your personalized, one-of-a-kind editions today! (Click here)

Fantasy fans of Dave Duncan will be pleased to know that 8 titles are now back in print. The Cursed, a novel, and two series, The Seventh Sword (all 3 books), and A Handful of Men (all 4 books), are in paperback as well as E-Book editions as of September. Dave is a prolific and wonderful Canadian writer, and in the opinion of his many readers, a master of swashbuckling and magical adventure fantasy.

The Cursed
Reluctant Swordsman, The (Book One of The Seventh Sword)
Coming Of Wisdom, The (Book Two of The Seventh Sword)
Destiny of the Sword, The (Book Three of The Seventh Sword)
Cutting Edge, The (Book One of A Handful of Men )
Upland Outlaws (Book Two of A Handful Of Men)
Stricken Field, The (Book Three of A Handful Of Men)
Living God, The (Book Four of A Handful of Men )