WIZARD’S TOWER ACQUIRE BOOKS OF OUTREMER FANTASY SERIES BY CHAZ BRENCHLEY
Cheryl Morgan, publisher of Wizard’s Tower Press, has acquired World English and ebook rights to the epic fantasy Books of Outremer series by Chaz Brenchley. The agent was John Jarrold.
This classic series was first published in the 1990s. Wizard’s Tower will be publishing them in six volumes, beginning in early 2022 with Devil in the Dust.
Once upon a time, a band of believers set out to win control of the holy places for the faithful. It was a long and dangerous journey, and at the end of it they found people whose ways of life were utterly strange to them, who had skills and built cities they could never have imagined. There were miracles, too, and objects of unearthly power, for those who believed. Yet somehow they managed to carve out a group of little kingdoms of the faithful, and to hold on to them for generation after generation. And they called them Outremer, the Land beyond the Sea.
Is this a true story? There are two answers. One is, yes, it is a true story, and you can read about the Crusader Kingdoms in the history books: a good place to start is Sir Steven Runciman’s three-volume A History of the Crusades.
The other answer is, yes, of course it’s a true story, and Chaz Brenchley invented it. The Books of Outremer tells the story of the struggle to control the land of Outremer – not only the war between the invaders and the native peoples, but also the factional struggles within each side, not to mention the magical beings who have their own mysterious reasons for intervening. And most of all, it is the story of a group of individuals, brought together by these public events, but trying to live their own private lives regardless.
The story opens in in the stronghold of Roq de Rançon, in the north of Outremer, where Marron comes as a novice in the military order of Ransomers, where Julianne comes to meet the Elessan baron she must marry, where Jemel comes as a member of an attacking army and where Elisande comes, but won’t say why…
Cheryl Morgan said: “I read the Outremer series in 2004. At the time, Crusader imagery was regularly utilised in support of the war in Iraq, and depiction of queer relationships in fantasy was still a rarity. Consequently the series was a breath of fresh air in a world just starting to go mad. I’m delighted to be able to bring these books back to the reading public.”
“This is a wonderful fantasy series,” said John Jarrold. “And I have thought so for many years, because I was the original commissioning editor for Random House UK in the 1990s!”