Annals of the Nameless Dwarf Series by Derek Prior, Mike Carnes

From internationally bestselling author D.P. Prior..."A beautifully written and engrossing masterwork!" -- Mitchell HoganFantasy Faction semifinalist for the SPFBO 2018A babe is born in the shadows of the ravine city, a child who will end the self-imposed exile of the dwarves and usher in a new age of glory.Years later, Ravine Guard Carnac Thayn discovers a break-in at the Scriptorium. A dwarf has been murdered and a book stolen, but the ruling council do nothing... moreFrom internationally bestselling author D.P. Prior..."A beautifully written and engrossing masterwork!" -- Mitchell HoganFantasy Faction semifinalist for the SPFBO 2018A babe is born in the shadows of the ravine city, a child who will end the self-imposed exile of the dwarves and usher in a new age of glory.Years later, Ravine Guard Carnac Thayn discovers a break-in at the Scriptorium. A dwarf has been murdered and a book stolen, but the ruling council do nothing.Then, when Carn is called to investigate thuds and crashes from the mines, old horror rises from the deep, and the city is threatened with slaughter.Rumors begin to circulate about a mythical axe said to be lost below the earth, an axe wielded by the dwarf lords of old that might just be the last hope of a race marked to die.But deception is rife, and unseen forces manipulate all paths to the future.It is a pivotal moment for the dwarves, and Carn must make a choice that will either save or damn his people.Blood will flow in rivers through the ravine.Friends will become foes.A name will be forgotten.And a hero will rise. less

Awakened from an induced year-long slumber, the Nameless Dwarf is tortured with memories of slaughter and must come to terms with who he has become: an outcast, a butcher, the most reviled of dwarven-kind... moreAwakened from an induced year-long slumber, the Nameless Dwarf is tortured with memories of slaughter and must come to terms with who he has become: an outcast, a butcher, the most reviled of dwarven-kind.As forces of unimaginable destruction coalesce around the mountain fortress of a mad sorcerer, the philosopher Aristodeus puts together a team for a last desperate attempt to avert the coming cataclysm:A knight besieged by doubts, who has been prepared since a child for the current crisis, yet is crumbling under the pressure of the task before him;An albino assassin who denies the truth of what he really is;A woman with a black sword as disturbing as the axe responsible for the massacre at Arx Gravis;And a dwarf with no name, who will either carve out the path of his own redemption or condemn the world to a night that will never end. less

The only thing keeping the Nameless Dwarf from once more becoming the Ravine Butcher is a helm made from the sorcerous ore, ocras, which he can never remove. Without the helm, he would succumb to the power of the black axe that caused the slaughter at Arx Gravis... moreThe only thing keeping the Nameless Dwarf from once more becoming the Ravine Butcher is a helm made from the sorcerous ore, ocras, which he can never remove. Without the helm, he would succumb to the power of the black axe that caused the slaughter at Arx Gravis.After a year of fighting in other people’s wars, Nameless receives a visit from one of the underworld tricksters—a faen—who tells him the day he has long waited for has arrived:The philosopher Aristodeus has come up with a plan to destroy the black axe and free Nameless from the ocras helm.With the aid of new companions and an old friend, the assassin Shadrak the Unseen, Nameless must retrieve three artifacts that, combined, will bring an end to his suffering:The gauntlets of the fire giant, Sartis, whose lair lies in the roots of a volcano;The invulnerable armor of the Lich Lord of Verusia—an undead tyrant with a penchant for impaling and the drinking of souls;And the Shield of Warding, beneath which cowers a paranoid god on the fringe of the Abyss.But things are never that simple. Each of the companions has their own reasons for joining the quests, even Shadrak, who has been bound by an irrevocable contract—To kill the Nameless Dwarf. less

He was a curse upon the dwarves.Then their savior.Their king.But after the tragic loss of his wife, the Nameless Dwarf stood down from the throne of Arnoch and went into the mountains to die.Two hundred years later, the dwarves are a dwindling race on the brink of civil war.When the hordes of Arnoch storm through the Malfen Pass, refugees flee for their lives, among them the half-Slathian storyteller, Nyra Sahtis, and Sister Caelin, a priestess who was once a trainer of armies... moreHe was a curse upon the dwarves.Then their savior.Their king.But after the tragic loss of his wife, the Nameless Dwarf stood down from the throne of Arnoch and went into the mountains to die.Two hundred years later, the dwarves are a dwindling race on the brink of civil war.When the hordes of Arnoch storm through the Malfen Pass, refugees flee for their lives, among them the half-Slathian storyteller, Nyra Sahtis, and Sister Caelin, a priestess who was once a trainer of armies.But with the capital, Jeridium, under siege from a second dwarven faction, there is nowhere for them to run. And so Caelin must seek the aid of the lord she once betrayed, while Nyra is forced to confront everything she left behind when she fled her childhood home in the City of Sorcerers.As rival dwarven armies converge on Jeridium, the Senate send the assassin Shadrak the Unseen to the Southern Crags to find an old friend in a desperate bid to avert the coming catastrophe.For ancient evil manipulates from the shadows, and the dwarves are not themselves. And if there is any hope of bringing them to their senses, it comes in the shape of a grief-stricken warrior and his mythical axe:The Nameless Dwarf.The hero of legends.The last of the Exalted."Derek Prior always produces masterpieces of storytelling, with great characters full of life, relentless plots, and gripping and intense fight scenes." Mitchell Hogan"Like Bernard Cornwell on 'shrooms!" Dinorah Wilson less