Riding a Black Horse

Night Maiden, Book 1

By: Dan R. Arman

Narrated by: Sam Rosenthal

In a land devastated by plague, invaders, and lawless brigands, magic has all but disappeared, and the masses live in misery and depravity. But a strange young maiden appears with a powerful gift and a promise to restore the rightful king to the throne of Orloins and a magical order to the world.

But her gift may come at high risk - to herself and her people. Meanwhile, across the sea, an ambitious inventor toils in his workshop, developing a device he hopes can end the war between the totalitarian regime of the Fiorian Empire and kingdoms of Orloins.

However, he begins to worry that the technology he's developing in the wrong hands could be used for evil ends.

©2019 Dan R. Arman (P)2020 Hydra Productions Online LLC

For fans of fantasy epics

This novel is an interesting epic in the style of Game of Thrones novels or the Witcher TV series. It moves between the storylines of various characters including a magical maiden who can resurrect the dead, a spoiled prince, an inventor tasked with creating a war machine, and a pair of peasants. The story is entertaining and ends with a bit of a cliffhanger leading into the sequel. I had a bit of difficulty figuring out who was who for a bit into the book. Although, I think some of this was due to the narration since I bought the audio version. The narrator has a nice voice, but he went at a quick pace and didn't do a lot to distinguish between the characters with the voices.