The Job Started Simple.
It Didn't Stay That Way.
My second novel, The Peace Child, opens the way many bad missions do. An assignment that was supposed to be simple.
Ranford “Red” Redgrave is a retired raider colonel with one final task: get a hostage-prince and a novice nun out of a city that’s about to turn on all three of them. Caden is the “Peace Child,” a small boy handed over as a living ceasefire guarantee between two enemy kingdoms. Namura is the nun assigned to shepherd him. Red is the old soldier who’s supposed to make sure they both survive the trip.
It goes sideways in the first chapter. And it…well, it never stops going sideways. As I said in one podcast, it’s basically one novel-length chase scene.
This one’s a real departure in tone from Relics of the Fallen. Full secondary-world fantasy, a world of swords, wheellock pistols, and rune magic instead of EOD techs and alien artifacts. But it’s got the same bones underneath. Brutal, fast-paced action. A no-fail mission. A bit of humor—in this case, a bit of it dealing with poop and butts, since after all, the prince is six years old. And people doing dangerous work for someone else’s benefit, and the found family that gets built along the way.
It’s a great read, Nick. The characters all have depth, their challenges are more than tactical, and the story moves well. Really enjoyed it.