Reign of Madness

by J. M. F. Hildebrandt

Overview

In Ages past, the magicians of Terra fled the expansion of monotheism and science for a world already peopled by refugees from worlds uncounted. On Xeuxondra, Humanity’s magicians carved out an Empire where their children could live safely in their gifts. Eight centuries have passed and the Imperial House has fallen into decay. The latest in a series of bad Emperors, Josef XII, has ruled with cruelty, corruption, and madness. The Archpriest of the God of Vengeance has called a Convocation in the city of Armaconia to discuss what to do about the state of affairs.
Into this situation falls two young men destined to steer the Empire into the future. Despite his Majesty's madness and cruelty, the wise Empress, long disgusted by her husband, has managed to raise three children that give hope for the Imperial House of Pfalia. The eldest, Crown Prince Jan, is on his way to Armaconia to meet his betrothed. There he will discover a burden of responsibility both unfair and inevitable.
As Prince Jan is journeying to the Holy City, Josef Samuelson is endeavoring to escape arrest and conscription on Terra. The last of a long line of wizards, Samuelson uses an ancient spell passed down through the centuries to flee Terra, emerging in a lake near Armaconia. Taken in by the priesthood, the young wizard is thrust into a power struggle between the cruelty of Emperor Josef XII and the determination of the Archpriest to free the Empire from his reign of madness. Samuelson finds a new home where he can be himself, a new family to protect, and a friend closer than any the young man had ever known.
Can two young men thrown together find their way down the dangerous path of a very strange destiny none can predict?

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014777926
Publisher:	J. M. F. Hildebrandt
Publication date:	06/09/2012
Series:	Chronicles of The Samuelson , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	441
File size:	317 KB

About the Author

J. M. F. Hildebrandt was born in Cold War Europe to an American military family. He spent roughly 11 years of his childhood in West Germany and came to the United States for the final time as the Iron Curtain was coming down. Living in several states, he finally wound up in Georgia where he finished high school and returned to finish college, earning first a Bachelor's Degree in History and then a Master's Degree in Teaching Secondary Social Studies. He started his first novel upon graduating high school and finished almost three years later. He describes this first effort as "absolute drivel." Things have improved greatly and Reign of Madness, his first published work, was started while still in college and finished within a year. He is currently working on editing the sequel to Reign of Madness.