THE PHILOSOPHER IN ARMS

a weblit novel by Karen Wehrstein
Posting every weekday

"***** I’ve found a thrill like no other. Every update is heart-filling. Karen gets me every time."
- GreenGlass @ Web Fiction Guide

"***** The world-building is particularly brilliant..." - Elizabeth Barrette @ Web Fiction Guide

"Emotional verisimilitude is extremely difficult but is here achieved with an easy grace that staggers me." - Michael Thedford @ Lexy's Basement

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THE WORLD

DESTROYED BY THE FIRE, a global cataclysm of unclear nature, civilization is rising slowly again, with rival nation-states warring over land and power. Relics of pre-Fire technology remain, most often considered magical. Astonishing knowledge turns up in the least expected places. Might humankind’s second rise lead to a second disaster? No one’s much worried about it.

Yet.

THE CHILD

The fiercely democratic people of Yeola-e say they keep but one slave: their hereditary leader. Extraordinarily gifted as a warrior, and forged by a strict training demanding duty and sacrifice, Fourth Chevenga Shae-Arano-e grows up knowing from a vision that he will not live more than thirty years.

THE POWER

When Kurkas Aan, the Imperator of Arko, the greatest empire in the Fifth Millennium world, sets his sights on conquering Yeola-e, Chevenga knows it falls to him to do something about it... and fast.

Aided by Niku, his passionate and volatile lover and the holder of the secret of flight, Skorsas, the flawless pleasure-boy of pragmatic genius, Krero, the gruff guard captain of almost-unshakable loyalty, Kaninjer, the ultimately-pacifistic healer, a deadly enemy who turns lover and a host of others, Chevenga and the Yeolis undertake a battle for freedom.

Or is it for power?

"More often than once, we have had to remind each other that this is only a story..." - Fantasy Lover @ Lexy's Basement