Maradaine Saga: Thorn of Maradaine

The Maradaine Saga continues as the Thorn of Maradaine returns! New threats come for him on the streets of Aventil and on the University campus. Veranix continues his fight against Fenmere, and draws the attention of greater forces with ill plans for the city of Maradaine. "Fantasy adventure readers, especially fans of spell-wielding students, will enjoy these lively characters and their high-energy story." - Publisher's Weekly Veranix Calbert is The Thorn: the street vigilante who became a legend to the people of Maradaine, especially the gangs that run the neighborhood of Aventil. The Thorn continues to harass Willem Fenmere, the drug kingpin of the Dentonhill neighborhood, determined to stop him and the effitte drug trade. It's also Exam Week at the University of Maradaine, where Veranix is a magic student. With his academic career-and future as a mage-riding on his performance, Veranix needs to devote himself entirely to studying and participating in a fellow student's thesis experiments. But with a series of dangerous magical pranks plaguing the campus, it becomes clear that there's someone with a vendetta against the university, and The Thorn may be the only one capable of stopping them. Between the prankster, a war brewing between the Aventil gangs, and the flamboyant assassins Fenmere has hired to kill him, Veranix may end up dead before the week is out.

The Thorn faces his hardest fight as the second phase of the Maradaine Saga begins. The autumn semester at the University of Maradaine is underway, and Veranix Calbert is doing his best to balance the new responsibilities of being a fourth-year magic student under the militant Altarn Initiatives, while still acting as The Thorn, the street vigilante deep in a personal war against the drug kingpin Willem Fenmere. With the help of his friends Kaiana, Delmin, and Mila, he's been able to strike real blows against Fenmere's empire. But Veranix's fight has earned him more enemies than just Fenmere, including the mad alchemist Cuse Jensett, the imposters Erno Don and Enzin Hence, and the Deadly Birds Magpie and Jackdaw. These five killers join forces to escape Quarrygate Prison and offer an alliance to Fenmere, bringing with them the perfect leverage to seal the deal: the Thorn's identity. Once Fenmere knows who Veranix is, he doesn't just want to kill him, but to utterly shatter him. Calling on everyone in Maradaine holding a grudge against the Thorn, he unleashes a brutal hunt against Veranix. With old and new enemies all looking to claim the bounty on his head, stripped of the security of his secret identity, Veranix faces the most brutal fight of his all too-short life.

Blending vigilante justice with epic fantasy, student mage Veranix Calbert fights crime in the city of Maradaine in this fast-paced debut novel • "Veranix is Batman, if Batman were a teenager and magically talented." -Library Journal Veranix Calbert leads a double life. By day, he's a struggling magic student at the University of Maradaine. At night, he spoils the drug trade of Willem Fenmere, crime boss of Dentonhill and murderer of Veranix's father. He's determined to shut Fenmere down. To that end Veranix disrupts the delivery of two magical artifacts meant for Fenmere's clients, the mages of the Blue Hand Circle. Using these power-filled objects in his fight, he quickly becomes a real thorn in Fenmere's side. So much so that soon not only Fenmere, but powerful mages, assassins, and street gangs all want a piece of "The Thorn." And with professors and prefects on the verge of discovering his secrets, Veranix's double life might just fall apart. Unless, of course, Fenmere puts an end to it first. The Thorn of Dentonhill launches the Maradaine Saga: a fantasy epic like no other, with four series braided together into a thrilling larger narrative.