Shards of Light: Morrigan's Brood Book V - Softcover

Dunbar, Heather Poinsett; Dunbar, Christopher Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1937341402 ISBN 13: 9781937341404

Publisher: Triscelle Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

Many sets of eyes peer through the mist, watching events unfold as the dark alliance seeks out an ancient device that they hope will uncorrupt the menace that has nearly brought the Holy Roman Empire to its knees. However, not everyone beyond the mist is content merely to watch.The scourge continues unchecked, but instead of murdering innocent people, Venus’ Cursed are capturing them and transforming them into more devils and demons. The Strigoi are no longer bands of shambling hordes... they are now an army.Can the Dark Alliance cobble together a sufficient force of arms to combat the scourge, or will betrayal and bitter rivalries seek to topple the Empire into the void?Continue the journey... the fifth in a series of stories revolving around the Deargh Du through the ages.

About this title

From the Author:

It's been five long years since the release of our previous installment in the Morrigan's Brood Series, Curse of Venus, but here finally is the last book of the second trilogy, Shards of Light.  A new reader to this series should be able to pick things up with this book, but unless they read the previous books of the series, they may have questions about some of the character relationships and world-building of this fantastical view of our ancient history.

So, what has happened to our characters?  Well, someone who was thought dead is actually alive (no spoilers), and everyone is in Germany trying to defeat those murderous demons... well, Strigoi, actually.  Mandubratius and Marcus remain hostile allies, Arwin gets drunk, and Edward blows things up.

We looked at locations in Germany near Prüm Abbey in Rhineland-Palatinate and found some beautiful locations where, if these events actually happened in history (spoiler... they didn't, at least as far as the written record says), it would have made sense for them to have happened where they are depicted in the story.

A note about the cover art:  Khanada Taylor declined to do the cover for this novel, so Triscelle Publishing brought in Alexandra Rena-Wagner to do the new cover.  Khanada used digital art to create her striking, color-rich covers, whereas Alexandra painted our cover art in water colors to give a more stark view of the world in Shards of Light.  Her cover art reveals the darker nature of this work as compared to the other books of the series and reveals the madness of those who wield considerable power and desire little more than to cast the world into chaos and destruction.

So, please enjoy this latest release of the Morrigan's Brood Series, and standby for news about some of our other works that will be coming out this year (2019).

From the Inside Flap:

"Granddaughter.  Granddaughter!  Wake up!  Wake up I say!"
     "Wha... what?  Grandfather?  Am I dead?  How is it that I can see you?"
     "You're not dead, Talia, but you deserve to be.  After all, you failed to reacquire our family lands twice, as I recall."
     "But you lost them in the first place, grandfather."
     "Ha!  I was betrayed by your cousin.  He allowed the Franks into the stronghold.  I gave my life to make sure you escaped.  Which is more than you've ever done for our family."
     "I tried to take back our lands.  I had not even seen twenty cycles--"
     "It was an utter failure.  You only escaped because you disguised yourself as a peasant boy.  Here again you failed.  Even with your abilities as a Lamia, you couldn't rebuild our legacy."
     "That's not my fault, grandfather.  I'd been acquiring territories from different sources.  It was only due to Deargh Du interference that I was exposed.  Also, I never received education in combat."
     "I'm not talking about that, you whelp.  The best way to attain power is to manipulate circumstances, so it's given to you freely.  You had an opportunity early to seduce the emperor.  You could have received those lands out of the kindness of his loins.  I think your sponsor, whatever his name is, saw the true objective that you were blind to.  Not only would you hold Burgundy, but the emperor's ear as well.  You could have had power to influence him!"
     "How could I have--"
     "Talia, you are small-minded.  Perhaps it would have been better for me to flee from the Franks, but no.  I threw my life away for a poor excuse of a grandchild.  I hope you find nothing but failure.  If I find you in the afterlife, I will punish you for all your misdeeds!"
     "I will redeem myself, grandfather!"

About this edition

• Publisher: Triscelle Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1937341402
• ISBN 13: 9781937341404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Hays Ruth Davis, Aalderink Sarah
• Illustrator: Wagner Alexandra Rena, Taylor Khanada, Feher Daniel