The Dream Murderer Cycle will have you gripped from when you first open Murderer of Dreams, until the thrilling finale of Mistress of Dreams. You can now order each instalment of the trilogy and read the entire saga without interruption.
If sci fi fantasy books are your preferred genre, you will not want to miss out on the intricate world created by author Paul Taffinder.
MURDERER OF DREAMS
BOOK ONE OF THE DREAM MURDERER CYCLE
by Paul Taffinder
The stars fell.
The oceans boiled and flooded the land.
A darkness descended.
ECHREXAR murdered our dreams
Take your first step into Kiangsu Realm with the opening book in The Dream Murderer Cycle trilogy. The world is in tatters after the dark force of Echrexar claimed millions of souls. Those that remain confront a new Dark Age that threatens to stamp out the last embers of humanity.
Discover the thrill of meeting a new character. Eslin is far from the perfect hero, and she harbours a secret that could betray her role as spymaster Skava.
Murderer of Dreams combines an action-packed plot with deeper themes that capture humanity at both its best and worst. Once you start reading, you will not be able to put it down.
"There was a time, before the breaking of the Golden Age of the world, when the peoples were as the birds of the air – of a thousand forms – and each of the thousand spoke no single tongue. Until Echrexar, the eater of a million million souls. Echrexar laid waste the land and the sea and darkened the skies so that the people were nearly no more. But the 10,000 Immortals saved the people in their refuges. And it was the black-robed Exarchs of the Faith, sent forth from the whitestone pyramid temple at Cise Hook, who gave them the archives and the teachings.
Eslin grew up with a small band of survivors beneath the permafrost of the deep Svalbard refuge, thrown back into an in-between time of perpetual darkness and grim survival underground. As the world recovers, it has entered a new Dark Age of dream wanderers who foretell the future, fanatics of the Faith and, among the old fortresses, internecine purges between the Lords of Kiangsu Realm. In this febrile empire, Eslin has found a new role as Skava, the spymaster of the once-powerful Kingdom of Honam, fired by a passionate intensity to rebuild the world and all its dreams. Working in the shadows, she must re-unite the old kingdoms and consolidate her power. But she has a terrible secret, both curse and blessing: she is one of the last of the Immortals. Her ancient enemies know it and they have found her again. Harbin of the Hundred Islands and the assassin Kesmet are on her trail, together with the brutal Hunters of Heretics, pursuing her through the deep forests and across the snow-capped High Alnaes mountains."
In this battle for the future, only one side can triumph.
Conjured on an epic scale, Murderer of Dreams is a brilliantly original portrayal of a post-apocalyptic dominion of nobles, spies, zealots and assassins whose passions, conspiracies and predatory ambitions have sprung twisted from the mythology of a destroyed world.
BETRAYER OF DREAMS
BOOK TWO OF THE DREAM MURDERER CYCLE
by Paul Taffinder
Betrayal is the worst of deeds. Betrayal is a curse upon your fellows. Betrayal is akin to the opening of the four doors of the sealed earth: it is an invitation to the in-between and, thus, to Echrexar. It is sacrilege.
The Book of the Dead – ‘Dogmata’: lines 7777-7779
The second instalment of The Dream Murderer Cycle seethes with plots and conspiracy. Tensions are rising, and the stakes could not be higher.
Skava has to weave her way through treachery and deceit as friends and foes alike plot their moves and counter-moves. Fiercely intelligent and recklessly ambitious, Skava is ready to face the fight.
More than ever, the exarchs of the Faith fear the in-between time and the in-between places and the violent return of the god Echrexar. Their dreams show them blood and only blood. Assailed by enemies, Skava devises plans and stratagems to overthrow king and Archivists in her ambition to remake the world. Assassins have struck from the shadows, the Realm is in turmoil. However, King Jeval is fighting back, with a huge Ta-shih army aiming to strike first. He, too, has assassins and he does not forgive betrayal. Nor do the Immortals, Harbin and Kesmet, long-committed to oppose Skava, recoil from alliances that might defeat her.
With her loyal squad of Maki and Yan, Skava has her eye fixed on the ancient Temple at Cise Hook and the archaic secrets concealed in its underground labyrinth. Could they change the future of the world?
MISTRESS OF DREAMS
BOOK THREE OF THE DREAM MURDERER CYCLE
by Paul Taffinder
Your fate is written in the dreams of the gods.
The Six Hundredth Tablet of Wisdom.
There is a sorrow that comes with closing a final chapter and parting from a world as dynamic as Kiangsu Realm. The Dream Murderer Cycle comes to a stunning finale, leading us to an ancient temple where the Gods dream their reckless dreams.
Find out if Eslin realises her ambition, and who can be called the victor in a fight for the future of humanity.
Taffinder creates a world that echoes our own, woven with post-apocalyptic terror and newly-forged mythology. Kiangsu Realm has all the conspiracy and power-play of Tudor England and Ancient China’s Forbidden City, but with far deadlier stakes.
Immerse yourself completely in The Dream Murderer Cycle.
The true Faith is at war with itself. Prophecies will be fulfilled. Grandmaster Tam and the hunters of heretics are banished but foresee triumph even as the god of the in-between returns. A new age of orthodoxy is imminent and Exarch Hassin seeks to subvert Clan Ouine to his fanatical cause.
Skava and the renegade armies of the Biljan Kingdoms scramble to meet the fury of King Jeval who marches with his vaunted battalions to crush Clan Ouine. In spite of all Skava’s stratagems, Prince Osir and his sister the Lady Che Keleu lead a new-forged army across the mountains in the king’s name.
Skava has set the tiles of fate to fall one upon another in a pattern that will wrench the world to her purpose. The Realm tumbles inevitably towards war and a decisive clash at Tower Pike. But has she overreached? Skava’s battlefield weapons, built in secret but untested, promise much; allies offer unexpected pledges; victory might be within grasp…But those same allies vow blood feud whilst friends clutch daggers behind her back. Assassins and plots multiply. And the king has his own surprises to unleash.
In the end, everything leads to the ancient temple at Cise Hook where the gods, it seems, dream their reckless dreams…
