Book 1

King of Swords

by Dave Duncan

Published 17 September 2013

Rigel has always known he is not quite human, but the only clue to his origin is the otherworldly bracelet he has worn since childhood.

His search for his parentage leads him to the Starlands, where reality and fantasy have changed places. There he learns that he is a human-starborn cross, and his bracelet is the legendary magical amulet Saiph, which makes its wearer an unbeatable swordsman. Fighting off monsters, battling a gang of assassins seeking to kill him, Rigel finds honorable employment as a hero. He knows that he must die very soon if he remains in the Starlands, but he has fallen hopelessly in love with a princess and cannot abandon her.

Through the imaginative landscape of the Starlands, Rigel’s quest leads him to encounter minotaurs, sphinxes, cyclops, and more fearsome creatures in Dave Duncan’s latest fantasy series.


Book 2

Queen of Stars

by Dave Duncan

Published 28 January 2014
While discovering the truth behind his half-human, half-elven parentage, master swordsman Rigel not only defeated the horrific monsters of the Starlands, but also thwarted Prince Vildiar’s dark designs to conquer the elven realms.Now, despite his fate to die an early, violent death if he remains in the Starlands, Rigel refuses to return to Earth, consumed as he is by love for the newly crowned Queen Talitha. But this passion is perilous: Vildiar has hatched multiple conspiracies to usurp the throne, and a vision has revealed that if Rigel and Talitha ever consummate their love, it will only hasten Rigel’s inevitable demise.Even under a pall of doom, Rigel never hesitates to defend the land and people he has taken on as his own. As traitors plot Talitha’s downfall, Rigel rescues one of Vildiar’s own half-breed offspring from Earth and offers her a new life in the Starlands. But will she embrace this gift without guile…or is she preparing to plunge a dagger into Rigel’s back?