This is Matthew Stogdill with the Sioux City Public Library, and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Today, I’ll be introducing you to the Covenant of Steel, a three-part fantasy series by Anthony Ryan.
Alwyn was never meant for greatness. Born in the gutter and raised in the woods by a band of cutthroats, he learned quickly that one had to be valuable to survive. It was a meager and dangerous life, but Alwyn was talented and quick-witted, and always hungry to learn. It became a life he enjoyed. Until the band’s leader, the man who raised him, is captured, tried, and executed. Without the band’s protection, Alwyn is soon captured and imprisoned. During his prison time, he learns to read and write, and makes valuable friends; each would save his life many times over.
With the help of his newfound family, he escapes the prison and seeks sanctuary with the Church of the Martyr. Unfortunately, Alwyn gets involved in a fight with another refugee, which forces him to leave the safety of the Church. To stay free, he takes up the soldier’s life in the Church’s Covenant Company.
Fighting under the command of Evadine Courlain, a noblewoman beset by visions of a fiery apocalypse, Alwyn must survive war as well as the deadly manipulations of nobility if he hopes to claim vengeance for those he has lost. As Evadine wins more and more battles, the common people flock to her banner, until she has an army that could challenge the kingdom itself. Alwyn quickly proves his value and rises through the ranks to become Evadine’s right hand; a position he soon learns is more dangerous than the frontlines. As their two fates entwine, Alwyn needs to use every skill and trick of outlaws, knights, and nobles to help Evadine’s cause and avoid a terrible fate.
Author Anthony Ryan’s writing immerses you in the forests, plains, and snows of the kingdom of Albermaine as he takes the reader through grand battles and court intrigue in this tale of loyalty, redemption, and revenge.
Check out The Covenant of Steel at the Sioux City Public Library
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