There is a tendancy in fantasy towards a society where the fantastic becomes less common, where magic is useless, enigmatic, or dying, and where worlds are on the brink of ruin, assailed by dark forces.

A Beginning of Magic was a series forged by the idea of a character-driven story where the villains are real people with understandable, if perhaps disagreeable, motives. Where conflict comes about due to suspicion and miscommunication rather than unexplained forces of corruption. While Tolkien is certainly the master of fantasy by any measure, he is not the entirety of fantasy, and A Beginning of Magic seeks to join a new generation of fantasy books where evil is what people do to one another, not a force of dark magic.

The first volume deals with a young girl called Setheis, who goes on a different type of hero's journey already at the height of her power and fame, and opens as she attempts to cheat a deadly pursuit, looking to evade a rider dressed in black.

I've set aside the first draft of A Crown of Plastic with a few chapters written. The final two volumes are still in the beginning stages of their planning.

Books in this series:

• A Crown of Plastic
• A Council of Metal
• A City of Lights