Tor Books is very excited to reveal the first two chapters of The Ruin of Kings, the start of a new epic fantasy series by debut author Jenn Lyons, coming February 5th, 2019. To see the full cover, visit the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog.

The author’s journey to seeing her fantasy novel on shelves has already been remarkably unique. In her words:

Let me tell you a secret. When I was a teenager, after my mother discovered she had terminal breast cancer, she sat me down and told me an uncomfortable truth: she had lied to me my entire life. I wasn’t an only child. I was in fact the youngest of many, the only one she’d been able to rescue when she had fled my father, who had been abusive and alcoholic, and also, as it happens, worked for the CIA. To this day, I don’t know if she was awarded custody of me in the divorce, or if I was stolen.

What I’m trying to say is that when I decided to write The Ruin of Kings, a story about an orphan whose dream of being a lost prince turns into a nightmare when he discovers his real family is vile, I was following that age-old advice to ‘write what you know.’

In a way, it was an inevitable that I would write this book as it is that its hero will discover that it’s his destiny to destroy the world he thought he was saving. I’ve been planning it my whole life, filling it with all of my love of fantasy and magic, wizards and dragons, gods, demons, and secrets.

So many secrets.

I grew up in the harbor of bookstores, and let the pages of Tolkien, Herbert, Le Guin and so many other masters shelter me. I aimed for the stars and looked to Patrick Rothfuss, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson for inspiration. Under the guidance of these heroes, I have built a world of my own and blessed it with my hopes and dreams. It’s not always a pretty world, but then worlds which feel true seldom are.

[Presenting: The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons]