The Crystal Door:
Book 3 of the Eyes of Fate
Are the choices you make in life truly your own or are you on a set path of pre-determined destiny? If you are, how hard would you be willing to fight to defy it? How much would you be willing to sacrifice to protect those you love against the rapids of time itself?
Part 3 concludes the Eyes of Fate trilogy and explores all these questions and more. Witness the end of the wars and struggles of the Hidden Lands in the conclusion of the saga and may Fate keep you ever in His hands…
FROM THE BACK COVER:
From the ashes of destruction, a new power rises…
The war has ended, and another begun. Talgoth and the Crimson Sun are no more but the forces that have taken its place threaten to spread bloodshed across the lands and cause the extinction of an entire race. The chasm between the paths of the five travelers from Tritus continues to divide as they seek out and confront the gravity of their own destinies.
With Caleb’s life turned upside down and with power in his hands he never knew imaginable, he now must choose who he is and where he now fits into a world where all he has held dear has been taken from him. With a new threat bent on destroying L’iothrin’s people and the influence of the dark sage still poisoning the lands, the conflict for peace enters its final chapter.
The struggle of power kindled by the sister blades draws to an end…and Fate is watching.
BEHIND THE SCENES:
After over a decade of work, the final chapter of the Eyes of Fate was completed and this time, all of the stops are pulled.
If you have read book 2, you know that every single character ended up in a very different place than when book 2 started, and there are very specific reasons for that. What is truly exciting is that since book 3 is all about wrapping up the story, there is no time to waste. The world is established, the characters and their motives are known (for the most part), and the story picks up right where Tides of Chaos left off, immediately diving in and never stopping until the conclusion.
The Crystal Door will finally shed light on everything regarding Daymon and the incident with the dark sage, who he is, and what he is after, which brings the story full circle, hearkening back to the first chapter of book 1. In addition, something unique to this book is a slight break from the structure of the previous two in that there are many flashbacks, including in-depth looks into General Palson and his life before it collapsed. We will see where he comes from, how he became the sword master he is, and of course, the story of his past family, which culminates in Palson making a crucial choice of major importance in the current story.
As Leila claimed in Paladar, the price will be great to bring the War of the Hidden Lands to a conclusion. Characters will die. Sacrifices will be made and in the end, perhaps even Fate himself will show his hand.
TRIVIA:
- The first draft of the Crystal Door was comparable to the other two in the trilogy. However, after a hefty revision which included greatly expanding several subplots, it ended up being the longest of the three by nearly 30k words.
- The character of Maikah is loosely based on one of my old college roommates, a big guy who shares my love of weapons and heavy metal. A nod was in order as he is one of my writing career’s earliest supporters.
- By the end of book 3, the characters have collectively traveled to nearly every region on the map of the Hidden Lands. This is reminiscent of the typical structure of exploration in old-school JRPG video games.
- After finishing book 3, keen readers may notice a certain character has been speaking to them on the first page of each book in the trilogy, just before chapter 1 begins.