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With eight novels by TC Southwell and a trilogy and two anthologies by Vanessa Finaughty, this box set offers fantasy and sci-fi lovers escapism that will keep you up long past your bedtime. Dive into fantastic worlds and meet fascinating characters whose trials and tribulations will enchant and inspire. Discover how a vengeful assassin reshapes the fate of three kingdoms and share in a quest to discover the origins of mankind, then follow the tale of a young queen’s fight to be free with the aid of a combat cyborg. Two short story anthologies spice up the fare with dragons, sorcerers and magic galore, and a child of another god strives to save his world from mankind’s ravages. When a mortal dark god treads a tragic path as he rises to destroy the Overworld, a brave young girl risks her life to try to change his savage ways. Each hero and heroine takes a definitive step through a doorway to destiny as he or she seeks to right wrongs and save worlds.

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When Lashlor Leaflin offers to escort Queen Narraki Dragonsbane to the Jeltar Woods, he’s unwittingly caught up in a magical adventure of the type he would rather not have.

The sorceress Assassa believes the Land of Ends to be rightfully hers, but King Lanaran refuses to hand over his crown. In retaliation, the sorceress conjures creatures of darkness to hunt the queen and end her life. Lashlor helps where he can, but it isn’t easy when the Guards of Ends who protect the queen believe him to be false.

A confrontation with Assassa will be the death of him, Lashlor is certain. However, the king insists on his help and it soon becomes apparent that he may have no choice.

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Escorted by soldiers of Ends, Lashlor sets out to find an old flame, Rune Arcana, the only person who can help to remove the curse placed on the Queen of Ends. Lashlor believes that Rune currently resides in the Mountains of Eclador – a place from which no one has returned in all of recorded history. She could refuse his request. She could be dead. Lashlor and his companions could meet the same fate.

If they do not brave the mountains, however, Queen Narraki will remain in the form of a rabid creature of darkness… forever.

Forever is a long time, and King Lanaran fears the Wizard of Ends will not return. Ignoring Lashlor’s advice not to meddle with the curse, the king employs other magic users to attempt to undo the dark magic.

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In his search for the origin of the human race, Liam MacAskill travels to another planet and comes face to face with the Devil himself. He’s driven to claim sanctuary from the monks and nuns at Tridor Monastery, where another stranger to the land lies in a coma.

Liam teams up with Arthean, a Tridorian monk with a dark past and a heart of gold. At first glance, the two seem to be polar opposites, but are they really that different? Together with the monk’s Ilanenorian friends – a strange race of people who live above the clouds – Liam continues his search for the source of everything, which he believes will be found in the Garden of Origin. However, Sah, the power-hungry ruler who hunts Liam, searches for the garden, too. The race is on to see who will get there first and if Liam can survive long enough to fulfil his goal.

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Two months after Liam MacAskill’s return to Earth from Tridor Monastery, a portal opens in Orion’s Nebula, and a continent-sized spaceship emerges. It heads for Earth, where it hovers over Africa. Shortly thereafter, a second alien species comes through the portal. Then impossibility becomes reality – the second species steals Earth’s sun.

The first species, the T’Acan – or Harvesters, as some call them – seem friendly enough, but Liam suspects they are omitting something about their reasons for visiting Earth, which seem lame to him. It doesn’t take Liam long to discover what… They have to be stopped, but how to stop an invincible enemy?

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Liam and Arthean are trapped on a Harvester spaceship, hunted by the crew, when the rescue mission to save the mysterious Lenora Fairen goes horribly wrong. The ensuing events bring to light some disturbing information about the Harvesters – and their creators – and cause Arthean’s previously unfaltering faith to waver.

Information is scarce about the Vorsors, the species that created the Harvesters. However, the fact that a species as aggressive and bloodthirsty as the Harvesters are afraid of them is reason enough to worry Liam and his friends.

Unlikely allies are formed and new enemies made as Liam and Arthean embark on a new quest – saving their galaxy from the Vorsors.

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If sorcery and subterfuge get you through the night, this short story anthology is sure to spin you into a whirlwind adventure to realms beyond the imagination. Fans of the sci-fi fantasy series, Legends of Origin, will be pleased to note the inclusion of two stories featuring the series’ ryokin, along with a sneak peek at some of the series’ future characters.

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In this anthology, a young man’s incredible past is uncovered when he saves a young woman from conjured, fire-breathing dragons. A novice wizard’s resolve is tested when he is chased by rabid dogs for accusing a king’s beloved queen of murder. A mother prepares to brave danger by taking on a gluttonous black dragon with an overzealous penchant for livestock in the next valley that threatens, if left unchecked, to see her children going hungry during the looming winter. A cunning assassin sneaks into the castle dungeons to silence a prisoner before his testimony can reveal startling revelations about the queen. A desperate man does the unthinkable when he tries to kill a seven-year-old girl for the bounty placed on her head. An elf risks exposing the world’s best-kept secret – her secret – by embarking on a rescue mission to retrieve captured humans and kidnapped phoenix eggs.

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Science fiction meets the real world in this short story anthology, with stories guaranteed to spin your mind into an alternate reality. Are you ready?

Lydia isn’t scared of much. She deals with walking corpses on a daily basis without flinching, yet her fear of cockroaches is crippling and may be her undoing. Then there’s Katrina, whose blood has been genetically altered without her consent, inexplicable murders on a newly colonised planet, alien invasion, galactic exploration and more.

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They say the time will come for the darkened sky to violate our Earth with her tears of blood. The legend foretells of a blood-thirsty race being born from these tears; Mother Nature’s punishment for our evil deeds. They say that day will come when mankind’s thirst for the blood of his own consumes him. They say that day is near.