The Fallen Herald by Simon P.Edwards

Thorn and Alazla are promising students, and have little more on their minds than enjoying life, that is until Thorn witnesses the murder of an Avatar, herald to one of the nine gods.

Unknown to Thorn, the seed of the fallen herald takes root in him. Hidden forces seeking to overthrow the pantheon of gods capture Thorn, as Alazla can only watch, utterly helpless.
Thorn is carried to the secret realm of the immortals, the capricious children of the gods, where they seek to twist Thorn and use him to free them from their imprisonment.
Distraught and enraged at losing his life-long friend, Alazla sets out to find Thorn and confront the immense forces that hold him, with just the strength of his own frail mortality.  
From the book description.

This book is an excellent read and I would recommend it. I'm not going to spoil the plot - let's just say, it's a classic "epic fantasy", but the nice "twist" is that it does some of it in largely new and unexpected ways. The world is present, but is primarily in the background, as it is the characters and their motivations that take precedence and this has been done pleasingly well. The characterisations are strong and well rounded, and it is these characters that drive the story line along. The writing style is direct and conservative, and you always feel that the story is moving along at pace - this does not detract however from the story in any way - it is complete and consistent throughout. Something that I really liked was the original mechanics of magic in the story, but you'll have to read it to find out more....

You can buy it from;

amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

It is not currently available in e-book format.


The authors webstite can be found here

www.simonpedwards.co.uk or at www.thefallenherald.com