A rogue Duke, a beautiful woman, and a deadly mission.
Weyland, the best archer in the king’s army, wants revenge for the slaughter of his family. But when he stumbles across a murdered man with a secret and he saves a duke’s life in battle, he finds himself entangled in noble intrigues of the worst kind. A copper coin, a princess, and a beautiful tavern girl push Weyland’s skill and loyalty to the limit. Now Weyland has to survive long enough to fulfill his promise to the Duke without getting so deeply ensnared in noble intrigues that he cannot escape.
This novelette introduces the new adventure series Archer of the Heathland. Book One of the series, entitled Deliverance, picks up the story of Weyland’s son, Brion, and his desperate flight into the heathland.
James is a twenty-nine-year-old stuck in an older man’s body. He loves to paddle his canoe, shoot his handmade longbows in the woods, make knives, study martial arts, and generally enjoys challenging himself. When not teaching or writing about the real past, he is imagining worlds and histories that might have been, should have been, or may yet be.
James has two homes (though only one house)--the mountains of Idaho and the forests of New England--where he canoes, hikes, camps, rock climbs, and shoots the longbows he makes himself. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife.
James is a professional historian whose published works include two histories of the Inquisition, a documentary history of Columbus's first voyage, a transcription of a colonial era account book from Weymouth, Massachusetts, and a global history of piracy. This means that he is a professional teller of stories, both real and imagined.
James's favorite author is J.R.R. Tolkien, though he will never be able to watch the Peter Jackson Hobbit films again. The first viewing nearly gave him a fit. He loves The Giver and The Book Thief. He has read all the Hunger Games novels, but thinks Katniss should have ended up with Gale. (Sorry Peeta fans.) He enjoys Harry Potter and thinks magic should be real--so long as he owns the Elder Wand.
I read this after reading the first book in the series (Deliverance). It was short, but just as captivating as Deliverance was. I enjoyed it just as much; despite the short length it gave some good background on Weyland and Rosland that made me love the characters and helped me understand them more than Deliverance did. There could easily be a whole book about these two, and I'd love it!
I read book 1 and became interested in the characters. I read book 0 to get some of the back story. I really enjoyed the character and the action. I hope there is a book 0.1 with more back story.😊
This was a good introduction. It is danger and action packed, with a sprinkling of humor. I have not yet read a full book written by J.W. Elliot, but will likely do so in the future - since everything I enjoy in a book was in this short story
Found the introduction to the characters and how the storyline proceeds a good start. Not sure what period history this is and whereabouts it takes place!
Two weeks ago, I hadn’t even heard of J.W. Elliot, by pure chance, I seen a post on Twitter that mentioned free book giveaway’s on a website called Prolific Works, downloaded one or two of his works, and subscribed to his newsletter. He sent me an email, containing a link to the audiobook for this on YouTube. I told myself I’d review every book and short story sent to me through the author’s newsletters I signed up to and here we are.
I went into this story having no idea what to expect. I didn’t bother to read the summary and decided to let the narrator take me on a journey. I’m relatively new to listening to or reading short stories and this has been by far one of the best, if not the best short stories I’ve read so far. J.W. Elliot has quite the vocabulary, the likes of which I rarely get to see when reading stories and despite the audiobook only being an hour-long, he manages to do quite a lot of world-building.
The characters in this story are compelling and I find myself genuinely interested in buying the 7 books in the series as well as the short collection of stories. I’d have done so already if I could afford it.
The Kindle story is 1$ and the audiobook is less than 5$. What do you really have to lose? I appreciate authors who do short introductory stories for their series. Getting into a series can be a commitment, especially if it’s ongoing and this is a great way to find out if a new series is for you.
Great intrude to the series to come. Weyland being the best bowman and saving the Duke he asked Weyland do something for him which he wasn't really sure about. Not knowing what to expect things get pretty intense. Adventurous and intense at times.