Greetings.
The Chronicles of Aertu is my epic fantasy series that I began working on in 2010. I published the first two volumes in February and December of 2014. I began writing the third volume in 2015, but became sidetracked by the issues discussed on the home page.
The world of Aertu has a recorded history of over ten thousand years but lacking an industrial revolution, still operates at a Late Medieval level of technology. Nations tend to be large and stable, with strong central governments. Magic use is common only among the elves, and though appearing among humans occasionally, it is nearly non-existent among dwarves and westmen. Magic users among non-elves have the ability due to elvish ancestry, as it only appeared among them after intermarriage with elves.
Sorcerers among men were once common in the Kingdom of Sudea, when a mixed human-elvish caste known as the Halfbloods ruled. A great war, four thousand years past, decimated the Halfbloods when they fought the forces of The Nameless God, also known as the Adversary, an evil being of immense power left over from the time of creation. Prior to that war the Adversary abducted elves and bred his own halfblood sorcerers, so that now human sorcerers are more common in the lands once controlled by him than they are in Sudea.
These maps are ones that I constructed to maintain scale, in relation to the story, and to allow readers to better visualize events:
https://julianbenoit.net/2023/04/25/maps-of-aertu/
I put much research into travel time and distance (which, oddly enough, are not much different for foot or horseback) because I wanted the journeys to be as realistic as possible. If I wanted the characters to reach a certain place in a certain time, I needed to make sure it was reachable on the map. Additionally, scaling the map appropriately allowed me to place climate zones in positions that make sense, as far as likely weather patterns go. The main continent of Aertu is roughly the size of Eurasia, centered on the equator, and has no arctic zones on the continent proper. It does possess steaming jungles, rolling grasslands, and high mountains.
Here is a link to background information, such as calendars, history, and mythology:
https://julianbenoit.wordpress.com/background-information-for-the-chronicles-of-aertu/
Book One, titled “The Halfblood King”, follows the story of Aleron, a simple country boy, orphaned and raised by his grandfather. Aleron discovers just prior to his fifteenth birthday, that he is a first-generation halfblood, natural born sorcerer, and heir to the throne of his kingdom Sudea, vacant for a thousand years. It is available in e-book format, hardcover, and paperback from Amazon.com. The paperback edition is available through bookstores and second party vendors, worldwide. The audiobook version is available through Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.
For the first edition I posted a preview in my blog, Prologue through Chapter 4, and included links to subsequent chapters at the end of each post. My original intent was to post the entire manuscript as a series of installments, and I did that prior to publishing, but enrollment in the Kindle Select program precludes me from offering any more than ten percent of the novel in digital format through any venue other than the Kindle store. For that reason, I deleted all posts after Chapter 4. Here is a link to the first post:
https://julianbenoit.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/the-halfblood-king-prologue/
I engaged in an extensive re-write of the first volume, as many readers were dissatisfied with details I chose to leave out when I first published. I was under the impression that brevity is key with a first release, and wished to keep my novel around the recommended word count for fiction. What I did not realize was fantasy novels are expected to be 25-50% longer than other forms of fiction, even for first releases, so my book ended up seeming short. I added chapters regarding Aleron’s visit to the Elvish Colonies and his time in the Sudean Marines, prior to his quest to rescue his betrothed. Hopefully these additions, along with my renewed proofing and adjustments to the entire text, make The Halfblood King a much better read. The second edition incorporates only minor grammatical and punctuation revisions to the early chapters included in the preview above.
The Halfblood King, Second Edition is available on Amazon Kindle at the following link:
The print version is available here:
and here:
The audio version, narrated by Stewart Magrath, is available on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.
The second volume of The Chronicles of Aertu “Sign of the White Raven” was released in December of 2014. I followed the same pattern as the first volume, posting all chapters prior to publishing, and then deleting Chapter 5 and higher. Here is a link to the prologue:
https://julianbenoit.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/volume-2-prologue/
As for “Sign of the White Raven”, if you read the first book, (Spoiler Alert: If you have not yet, read no further.) you know that Aleron and his companions are stranded within the enemy city Kolixtla. The second volume revolves around their escape from the city, across Kolixtlan and into the lands of the westmen. The westmen, as a group, intrigue me and I wanted to more than just mention them in this story. In The Halfblood King Jessamine, an immortal, reveals that men, dwarves, and westmen all diverged from a common ancestor during a past ice age. Westmen are civilized Neanderthals, inhabiting the isolated northwest quarter of the continent, and dwarves were an early divergence from their line, possibly the result of an intermingling of early westmen and humans.
I also revised and re-edited the second volume, and as before, I made only minor grammatical and punctuation adjustments to the early chapters included in the preview.
Sign of the White Raven, Edition 1 is still available on Amazon Kindle at the following link:
The print version is available here:
and here:
The audio version of Sign of the White Raven is contracted, but not yet produced. Updates to follow.
The third volume is in the works. Titled “Empire of the South”, the prologue and several early chapters are posted in my blog. Here is a link to the prologue, with subsequent chapters linked from there:
https://julianbenoit.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/next-volume-in-the-works/
Thank you, and I hope you enjoy your time here in the magical realm of Aertu.
julianbenoit.com 