The Arthurian Age
A brief spark of light at the dawn of the Dark Ages will come to be known as The Arthurian Age.
In Book I, The Retreat to Avalon, ride with King Arthur and his warriors. Arthur’s fame draws a call for aid from the failing Roman Empire. In Book II, The Strife of Camlann, honor, intrigue and discord vie to define what Britain will become. In Book III, The Three Wicked Revelations, at the dawn of British independence from Rome, experience the struggle and witness the rise of Arthur, whose legend captivates after more than fifteen hundred years.
Based on archaeology and the research of historian Geoffrey Ashe and others, The Arthurian Age trilogy opens an immersive window on the real people and events behind the legends of King Arthur.
The Retreat to Avalon
Book I of The Arthurian Age
Fifteen hundred years have turned history into legend…
After three generations of struggle against ruthless invaders, Britain has finally clawed its way back within reach of peace and prosperity. Across the sea, Rome is crumbling under an onslaught of barbarian attacks, internal corruption and civil war. Desperate for allies, Rome’s last great emperor looks to Britain and the rising fame of her High King, Arthur.
Arthur believes the coming war is inevitable, but many are opposed. Dissent, intrigue and betrayal threaten to tear the fragile British alliance apart from within, while the enemies of Britain wait for the first sign of weakness.
Meanwhile, Gawain, a young warrior craving fame, is swept up in Arthur’s wake as the king raises an army. While Gawain’s wife and kin face their own struggles at home, the young warrior finds himself taking on more than he bargained for, and heading into the greatest battle his people have faced in generations.
The Retreat to Avalon is the exciting beginning of the historical fiction trilogy The Arthurian Age, introducing readers to the origins of King Arthur and the world he lived and fought for.
This review by the esteemed British historian, Geoffrey Ashe, gives a glimpse of what to expect:
Avalon, so the story goes, is a mythic place where King Arthur fades from view after his last battle. But in his ground-breaking novel The Retreat to Avalon, Sean Poage tells us otherwise. Avalon, he says, is a real location on the map, and a real Arthur did go there. We can even fix the date. Firmly based on historical and archaeological research, the story depicts a post-Roman Britain still preserving a tenuous unity under a charismatic leader: Arthur, the High King. As an ally of one of the later Roman emperors, he leads an army of Britons overseas. The author re-imagines the warfare of the time with authentic detail. Apart from the war, he skillfully reconstructs the ordinary life of the people of Britain, with much information about their food, their clothing, their buildings, their religion. He also gives credible glimpses of a place in Britain destined to inspire, long after, the romance of Camelot. Told through a group of vivid characters, The Retreat to Avalon brilliantly opens up a world which historical research has only recently begun to discover.
Geoffrey Ashe, MBE FRSL, historian and author of The Discovery of King Arthur
The Strife of Camlann
Book II of The Arthurian Age. The consequences of the events of the first book take shape in this story, detailing the events leading to the famous battle between Arthur and Modred.
The Three Wicked Revelations
Book III in The Arthurian Age. It is time to go back, discover the origins of Arthur and finally learn all of the secrets that led to Books I and II.
Heroika Anthology Series from Janet Morris
Conflict is a constant. When force on force is inevitable only the intrepid need come forth. Summon the Skirmishers to their eternal purpose, to face a foe who must be opposed at all cost. Gird yourself and join the brotherhood of ‘do or die.’ Created by Janet Morris and edited by Alexandra Butcher, HEROIKA: SKIRMISHERS is an anthology of desperate struggles in far flung time-scapes, the age old smell of battle and death.
SKIRMISHERS –Tales for the bold among you!
My contribution to this anthology is called A Handful of Salt
In 401 BC, Cyrus the Younger added ten thousand Greek mercenaries to his army and marched into battle near current-day Baghdad to challenge his brother for the throne of the Persian Empire. His Greeks were victorious, but he was slain and the Greeks were stranded deep inside the Persian Empire without supplies. To get home, they would have to fight their way north, nearly a thousand miles, through the mountains of eastern Anatolia to the Black Sea.
The adventure was described through the eyes of one of their leaders, Xenophon, in The Anabasis.
It is considered one of the greatest feats of military history and has often been recounted and re-imagined. But never through the eyes of their adversaries, the Persians, or the ancestral tribes of eastern Turkey. One event, in particular, is haunting and tragic. Today we struggle to understand the mind-set of ancient cultures, often making the mistake of seeing their world through the filter of our own values. This story is an attempt to understand a heroic perspective alien to our own.