My very first Novel. It is over 200,000 as I recall. Might be time to revisit that. It dates back to 1995 if that tells you anything. . .
Originally it was one big novel. I wrote section 3 first, didn’t think it was long enough then went back and did the beginning.
Book 1 is only 40,8074 words long. Kind of short. Book #2 is 102,706 words long and Book #3 is 71,486 words long, so maybe you see my dilema. That is a total of 215,066 words and the average novel size I believe is around 80K. Now I understand that fantasy novels can be long, but I think that 200K+ words is pushing it. The longest novel “War and Peace” is about 500K words long so it isn’t without precedence. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien was about 95,022 words. Lord of the Ringswas as follows; Fellowship of the Ring: 177,227 words, The Two Towers: 143,436 words andReturn of the King: 134,462.
My Novel “Way of the Warrior” follows a young man as he is rescued from a ravaged town by the greatest general of all times named Caldor and renamed Berncyn. A Shakari knight of the highest rank who is now a hunted exile. The boy impresses the General who takes him as a student. Growing up, living in a cave on the outskirts of society the young warrior learns many skills about the Sharkari knights who are part samurai, part ninja. Book one technically ends when assassins find the general and the young warrior is tasked with finding his teacher’s instructor. An elf named Si’ Aelfsward.
The second novel is about Berncyn’s journey to find the elf where he is graded and sent off to join more of Si’ Aelfsward’s students, fighting a distant war on the frontier against his mentor’s enemies who until now have remained in hiding.
He travels to a distant outpost and joins Si’ Aelfswards’ students as they act as scouts and raiders for a local lord named Marik. During a joint operation with another lord he meets and falls in love with another Shakari woman but he isn’t quite sure how to approach her.
A surprise attack by the Dark Ones overruns the fortress and Berncyn must lead the survivors to safety. They find out that all over the island the darkones have risen up and overrun the lords, leaving only a single refuge which the survivors manage to escape to named Tresh which is besieged by the Dark Ones.
Within the dubious safety of Tresh the survivors fight on the walls and learn that the Emperor feels they have betrayed him, refusing to reinforce or assist them and demanding they redeem their honor.
Tresh falls but many warriors escape, including Berncyn.
Book 3 starts with the abandoned warriors being accepted by a warlord in a foreign land who has dark one problems of his own. Berncyn decides to go his own way as he is torn with grief and guilt. In the wilds he is found by Si’ Aelfsward who administers the final test of the Shakari. Berncyn realizes that he wants to live and he proceeds to a distant city named Sadrask, without a purpose or goal, a wandering warrior.
In Sadrask he takes on an apprentice of his own, a former thief, and he finds out that Pantheris has survived and again he falls in love. The three become embroiled in a plot that involves a haunted castle in the middle of Sadrask, a small band of professional adventurers hired by a secretive magic council and an ancient evil that is returning to the lands and a prophecy is fulfilled.
This is an initial cover that I put together. When I go back to do a full edit/reread/re-write I will figure out if it will be three books or somehow two. Dunno. I get all teary eyed myself in some sections still and I’ve had a couple people cry when reading certain portions. I find it hard to edit properly as I get tied up in the story. The end always give me a real big boost and a super warm fuzzy.
