As the tribes of ancient Britain defend their lands against the might of the Roman Empire, another battle rages, unseen by the warring armies. It is a fight over blood. The product of a mutation as old as the human species, Corvan, like all his kind, possesses gifts beyond the dreams of normal men. The Dancers live long, kill or heal with thought alone, communicate over great distances, mind to mind. But Corvan is not satisfied. He seeks power, immortality; most of all he seeks to control time. In the wilds of the Scottish Highlands he creates a twisted dynasty, the ‘Family’, whose only goal is to produce a child who can conquer the barrier of time – a child of the Blood
The
Tyranny of the Blood
In fourth century Scotland, a powerful inbred society with superhuman
power and hereditary madness, known as ‘The Family’, has been
trying for centuries to breed a child with the ability to control time
itself. The blood is all that matters; the unfit are slaughtered to
achieve its twisted goal. When Rendail takes over leadership of the Family
from his father, he seems doomed to perpetuate the same mistakes…until
a chance encounter with an enigmatic stranger opens his eyes. When Rendail’s
firstborn develops the long awaited gift, a catastrophic chain of events
is cast into motion that threatens the very future of mankind.
Read Teresa Aguilar’s review for The Compulsive Reader here
Read the opening pages of The Tyranny of the Blood, here
A
Child of the Blood
Malim is the supernaturally powerful, time-travelling heir to the
leadership of ‘The Family’. He is the fulfilment of a
long-awaited dream. But the dream has become a nightmare. Centuries of
inbreeding have created a dangerous psychopath. To escape his father,
Rendail, Malim leaps forward fifteen hundred years to 21st Century
Scotland. His aim? To rule the present and control the past. To achieve
his insane ambitions he must breed. One woman, Karisse, carries the blood
he needs. But his brother, Arghel, stands in his way. While Rendail
struggles to preserve the Family, Malim lures Karisse to the far future,
out of Arghel’s reach. The battle lines are drawn. The outcome will
determine not only the fate of the Family, but the path of time itself.
Read JJ Marsh’s review here (quoted with kind permission from Words with Jam)
Read the opening pages of A Child of the Blood, here
A
Footnote:
When the idea of the ‘Family’ began to take shape, back in
2001, the character of Corvan’s son, Rendail was a shadow, a dark
thread running through the lives of his children, affecting all future
generations. He was never meant to appear, save briefly, and then only in
two dimensions, the personification of evil, cruel, tyrannical, the source
of children’s nightmares, a long dead blight on the Family history.
But when I finally allowed him to speak, he protested, complained, kept me
awake at night. In short, he just wouldn’t shut up. So, compelled to
tell his story, I let him take centre stage for what turned out to be the
first novel in the Blood Dancers series, ‘The Tyranny of the Blood’.
Hopefully, he told a good story.