The Acacia Trilogy by David Anthony Durham
The Acacia Trilogy is from the award winning author David Anthony Durham who is popularly known as the author of novels such as Gabriel’s Story and Walk Through Darkness. The series follows the destinies of King Leodan Akaran’s four children. Leodan is the ruler of a peaceful and prosperous empire called Acacia. Acacia is suddenly attacked by a deadly assassin who was exiled a long time ago. The surprise attack delivers a fatal blow to the empire and puts King Leodan on his death bed from where he plans his beloved children’s escape to their separate destinies. The children later embark on an epic journey to avenge their father’s death and restore the Acacian empire.
The books in the series are:
Acacia: The War with the Mein (Book 1)
Born into generations of prosperity, the four royal children of the Akaran dynasty know little of the world outside their opulent island paradise. But when an assassin strikes at the heart of their power, their lives are changed forever.
Forced to flee to distant corners and separated against their will, the children must navigate a web of hidden allegiances, ancient magic, foreign invaders, and illicit trade that will challenge their very notion of who they are. As they come to understand their true purpose in life, the fate of the world lies in their hands.
“Gripping…. Durham is a master of the fantasy epic.” —The Washington Post
The Other Lands (Book 2)
David Anthony Durham’s gripping Acacia Trilogy continues with an epic novel where loyalties are tested, new worlds are discovered, and battle lines are being drawn.
A few years have passed since Queen Corinn has usurped control of the Known World—and she now rules with an iron fist. With plans to expand her empire, she sends her brother, Dariel, on an exploratory mission across the sea to The Other Lands.
There, he discovers an alliance of tribes that have no interest in being ruled by Queen Corinn and the Akarans. In fact, Dariel’s arrival ignites a firestorm that once more exposes The Known World to a massive invasion, one unlike anything they have yet faced…
“A big, fat, rich piece of history-flavored fantasy. . . . Imagined with remarkable thoroughness.” —Time
The Sacred Band (Book 3)
With the first two books in the Acacia Trilogy, Acacia and The Other Lands, David Anthony Durham has created a vast and engrossing canvas of a world in turmoil, where the surviving children of a royal dynasty are on a quest to realize their fates—and perhaps right ancient wrongs once and for all. As The Sacred Band begins, one of them, Queen Corinn, bestrides the world as a result of her mastery of spells found in the ancient Book of Elenet. Her younger brother, Dariel, has been sent on a perilous mission to the Other Lands, while her sister, Mena, travels to the far north to confront an invasion of the feared race of the Auldek. Their separate trajectories will converge in a series of world-shaping, earth-shattering battles, all rendered with vividly imagined detail and in heroic scale.
David Anthony Durham concludes his tale of kingdoms in collision in an exciting fashion. His fictional world is at once realistic and fantastic, informed with an eloquent and distinctively Shakespearean sensibility.
