Wednesday, August 23, 2017

"King's Champion" is published!


I'm very pleased to announce that my first fantasy novel, "King's Champion", is now available for sale.  It's currently in Kindle e-book format, and a print edition is well advanced, awaiting only the arrival of the proof copy before I release it for sale.  The dead tree edition should be available within two weeks.




Regular readers will recall that, late last year, I asked you to choose which of two fantasy novels I would write.  You did so, voting with your comments and e-mails after reading excerpts from early drafts of both books.  Last month, I published another excerpt from the project you selected, which you can read here if you're interested.

The blurb reads:

After decades of peace, war is threatening the Kingdom of Avranche. Its old foes are stirring, in a new alliance with darker powers. Black wings bring death and torture in the night.

Owain, former King’s Champion, hears rumors of sorcery. Visiting the grave of his sword brother, he stumbles into a deadly raid, and uncovers coded orders for a larger plot.

The kingdom’s enemies know Owain is now their greatest danger. He must race against time to find and deal with them… before they deal with him!

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this one, particularly because I chose to write in the tradition of epic, sword-and-sorcery fantasy, with which I grew up, rather than the modern trend towards urban fantasy. I don't know whether I could do justice to urban fantasy (although I might surprise myself and try it someday, just to see what happens).  At any rate, I'll be very interested to hear what you, dear readers, think about this book.

My usual plea:  when you've read the book, please leave an honest review on Amazon.com.  Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors like me.  They're the best way for other potential readers to learn about our work, and give them an unbiased opinion about it.  We don't have publishers and distributors advertising on our behalf.  We're utterly dependent on word-of-mouth to sell our books, so you're vitally important to us.  (In the same vein, if you like the book, please spread the word about it through your social media accounts;  blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or whatever.)

Thank you all for your encouragement and early feedback.  Now you get to see whether your enthusiasm was justified!  I hope you'll find that it was.  If you like the book, I think I might develop the second project I mentioned last year into either another stand-alone fantasy novel, or perhaps a three-book series.  We'll see what happens.

Peter

10 comments:

Old NFO said...

It's GOOD! :-) Enjoyed being an alpha reader for you!

DaveS said...

I've downloaded it and it's the next book in the reading queue. Looking forward to another rollicking adventure!

MrGarabaldi said...

Hey Peter;

I just downloaded it off a link from Old NFO's site. I am in the middle of reading "Lawdog's Africa adventures". I will start on yours once I am finished.

Jim said...

Got my copy. I'll get to it eventually.

Jennifer said...

Just downloaded, cant wait!!

Ray - SoCal said...

Great read! Just left a review.

Hint alpha readers should all do reviews...

Alphonse said...

I've enjoyed your other books, so I'll get it.

But.....why does it have a picture of Al Gore after a 3-day drunk on the cover?

Anonymous said...

Ray, I did a quick review on my blog. I'm going to buy a copy and then review the book on Amazon, so that the review is weighted more heavily. However, first I have to get paid by Day Job. Alas, bills, then books, since I did not win Saturday's Powerball™ drawing.

LittleRed1

Jselvy said...

I just finished this via KU. Once again your excellent work is mugging me for my lunch money as I will be purchasing it come the first. I don't really have a choice, I MUST own it. I am such a victim. Maybe there's a support group? "Peter Grant compulsory purchasers?"

Anonymous said...

A fun read. The mark of a good author is constructing an entertaining story within the accepted expectations of readers for the genre. Like it or not, readers expect certain plot elements. A story that provides them and avoids seeming generic is half way there.

The storyline flowed smoothly, and there were a number of clever plot twists and an interesting take on how magic works.