The Golden City has fallen, the Empire is no more, ancient magic threatens the land
In The Unwritten Words, Christopher G. Nuttall’s story-telling mastery weaves a new epic which follows on from his bestselling Bookworm series and is set in that same world. In The Promised Lie, the first book of the new series, five years have passed since the earth-shattering events of Bookworm IV.
Shifting focus away from the Golden City and the powerful magical families who lived there, the Unwritten Words looks to what is happening in the other kingdoms that are suddenly no longer in thrall to the Empire. The few sorcerors who are left have no authority, so land grabs and power plays rely on might rather than magic. Which means that anyone who can wield magic has an immediate advantage.
The story starts in the Summer Isle…
The first book in The Unwritten Words series, The Promised Lie, was published by Elsewhen Press in February 2018. The second book, The Ancient Lie, was published in January 2020. The third book, The Truthful Lie, was published in October 2020.
The Unwritten Words series are available as unabridged audiobooks from Tantor Media Inc. narrated by Zehra Jane Naqvi. They are available through major audiobook retailers.
The Promised Lie
The first book in the Unwritten Words series
The Golden City has fallen. The Grand Sorcerer and Court Wizards are dead. The Empire they ruled is nothing more than a memory, a golden age lost in the civil wars as kings and princes battle for supremacy. And only a handful of trained magicians remain alive.
Isabella Majuro, Lady Sorceress, is little more than a mercenary, fighting for money in a desperate bid to escape her past. But when Prince Reginald of Andalusia plots the invasion of the Summer Isle, Isabella finds herself dragged into a war against strange magics from before recorded history …
… And an ancient mystery that may spell the end of the human race.
The Ancient Lie
The second book in the Unwritten Words series
After the campaign in the Summer Isle, Isabella rides out the winter storms by studying the godly magic under Mother Lembu, in the process learning about the origins of the old gods.
Crown Prince Reginald receives word that his father the King is ill and his sister Princess Sofia, acting as regent, is imposing a regime that is strangely similar to what had been happening on the Summer Isle – nobles killed, temples smashed, enforced public worship of old gods. Concerned that his family, and indeed his homeland, are in danger, Reginald is determined to return home. But the storms are still raging with what appears to be unnatural force, making any attempt to return to Andalusia too risky for the Prince and his men.… unless Isabella can somehow use the new rituals she has learnt to placate the powers behind the storms and navigate the fleet safely home to face whatever has taken control of the kingdom.
The Truthful Lie
The third book in the Unwritten Words series
Reginald, now King, is struggling against the rising tide of the Old God entities. He knows that his army alone cannot defeat them, even with cold iron that can contain them and free enslaved humans. But as cities burn and farmland is devastated, the people have been easily convinced by cultists to turn to the Old Gods.
In a neighbouring kingdom the weak young ruler, fallen prey to an entity that promised him the world, starts his campaign to fulfil that promise, adding to the threats heading towards Andalusia.
Reginald’s best hope is that Isabella, his sorceress Queen, and Princess Silverdale, his talented sister, can learn enough about the entities and their relationship with the human realm to find a magical way to defeat them. But, as time is running out, shattering news arrives from the Golden City…