Patty Jansen

Johanna, Roald, Nellie and Loesie return undercover to the devastated city of Saardam. In the months since they fled, the Fire Wizard Alexandre has ruled the town with campaigns of death and fear, focused on the eradication of the Church of the Triune, the former state church of Saarland that doesn't allow magic and that is more popular with the common people than with nobles. Johanna meets up with underground members of the church, even though her little gift of magic makes her feel ambivalent about it. She knows that ousting Alexandre will require a powerful magician, something she and her followers do not have. What is more, Alexandre's men discover the group, and the band of resistance fighters faces the showdown with the tyrant long before they're even close to ready for it.

The third book in the saga. Johanna, Roald, Nellie and Loesie have come to Florisheim finding many of their kinsmen there. The survivors from the burning of Saardam who have come here are the nobles who were never great supporters the old king, and it is likely that they won't support his son either, even if he was normal. They support his marriage to Johanna even less and Johanna's position as the new king's wife would be improved immensely if she produced an heir, but so far that's not happening. Florisheim is alive with evil magic, and that magic is starting to affect the Saarlanders who are unused to it. They suffer apparitions of ghosts, people driven to injure themselves, or taken prisoner to work in a mysterious hole in the ground. Johanna knows that they have to get out of that evil place, but where can they go when the violence covers the entire known world?

The tyrant Alexandre is gone from Saardam, but a new menace has come: the eastern traders in a ship of metal that is said to have been forged with dragon magic. They bring a chest of gold to buy an office in the city. The people don't want them in their town. The Church of the Triune, which forbids magic, has increased its hold on the population, despite the Red Baron's efforts to stamp it out. Newly-crowned queen Johanna is staring into the empty coffers after the extravagant spending by her husband's father before his death. King Roald is off in the garden to catch frogs, and she faces condemnation by the church in the knowledge that Saarland will need both money and magic to defeat the Red Baron's army.

The third book in the saga. Johanna, Roald, Nellie and Loesie have come to Florisheim finding many of their kinsmen there. The survivors from the burning of Saardam who have come here are the nobles who were never great supporters the old king, and it is likely that they won't support his son either, even if he was normal. They support his marriage to Johanna even less and Johanna's position as the new king's wife would be improved immensely if she produced an heir, but so far that's not happening. Florisheim is alive with evil magic, and that magic is starting to affect the Saarlanders who are unused to it. They suffer apparitions of ghosts, people driven to injure themselves, or taken prisoner to work in a mysterious hole in the ground. Johanna knows that they have to get out of that evil place, but where can they go when the violence covers the entire known world?

Queen Johanna's position in Saardam is fragile. The Barons and Kings of the countries in the hinterland are not happy that she helped the royal family to survive and is now about to ensure the next generation. They vow to teach this little upstart country a lesson for once and for all. Of course it is not so much about petty rivalry, but about access to the sea port that connects the hinterland with the lucrative ocean trade. Johanna knows that if it came to a fight Saardam could never survive, so she has invited all the heads of state and other important people for talks to invest in the city's shattered infrastructure for the benefit of all. As a congregation of royal families gathers such as the lowlands have never seen, the magicians travelling with the esteemed guests prepare the final and most insidious attempt to get control of the upstart little country and its usurper, commoner queen: through her baby daughter.

Johanna, Roald, Nellie and Loesie return undercover to the devastated city of Saardam. In the months since they fled, the Fire Wizard Alexandre has ruled the town with campaigns of death and fear, focused on the eradication of the Church of the Triune, the former state church of Saarland that doesn't allow magic and that is more popular with the common people than with nobles. Johanna meets up with underground members of the church, even though her little gift of magic makes her feel ambivalent about it. She knows that ousting Alexandre will require a powerful magician, something she and her followers do not have. What is more, Alexandre's men discover the group, and the band of resistance fighters faces the showdown with the tyrant long before they're even close to ready for it.

She has a dragon, and she's not afraid to use it. Nellie Dreessen is a kitchen maid in the palace of Regent Bernard of Saardam. She has worked for two kings and two regents, has seen two royal families murdered through magic, has seen ghosts and demons, and kept her head down like a good girl. On her fiftieth birthday, she receives her late father's diary, which describes a magical item that is so evil, it needs to be kept in the church crypt: a box that contains dragon. Problem is, someone has stolen the box. Regent Bernard holds a banquet for his eldest son's sixteenth birthday. Distinguished guests come from far and wide. Because she knows what the box looks like, Nellie discovers it in a nobleman's luggage. Removing the box from a thief's room is not stealing, right? Not if you intend to return it to the rightful owner: the church. But someone poisons the nobleman, and everyone in the kitchen is a suspect. Nellie's friend in the church advises Nellie to flee with the dragon box. The Regent is on a mission to stamp out magic, and Nellie plans to do what she does best: keep her head down and hide. Problem is, the dragon has other ideas.

Books 4-6 of the Ghostspeaker Chronicles. Johanna and her band of strange companions have fled the influence of the Red Baron and return to Saardam. In the months that they have been gone, the Fire Wizard has laid waste to the city and any surviving citizens, including Johanna's father, live in fear for their lives. To fight an evil wizard without magic is dangerous to say the least, but then Johanna learns why the Fire Wizard came to the city in the first place. An eastern trader comes into the port city with an iron ship that needs no sails and no animals to pull it. Every ruler or noble who fancies himself a ruler in Saardam or the neighbouring countries wants to get his hands on this magical ship, and many of them don't care how much blood they spill.

Books 4-6 of the Ghostspeaker Chronicles. Johanna and her band of strange companions have fled the influence of the Red Baron and return to Saardam. In the months that they have been gone, the Fire Wizard has laid waste to the city and any surviving citizens, including Johanna's father, live in fear for their lives. To fight an evil wizard without magic is dangerous to say the least, but then Johanna learns why the Fire Wizard came to the city in the first place. An eastern trader comes into the port city with an iron ship that needs no sails and no animals to pull it. Every ruler or noble who fancies himself a ruler in Saardam or the neighbouring countries wants to get his hands on this magical ship, and many of them don't care how much blood they spill.

Where magic is dark and gritty, characters troubled and twisted, and victory comes at a heavy price. Following the destruction of the City of Glass through an explosion of sonorics, huge numbers of refugees have descended upon the Chevakian capital Tiverius. The refugees are mostly members of the rebel group Brotherhood of the Light, supporters of the old royal family. They are injured, scared and hungry, and few speak Chevakian. The young Queen Jevaithi and her lover Isandor are amongst them, safe from the Eagle Knights for now. Young Eagle Knight Carro is waiting in an old farmhouse with his fellow Knights for the order to invade the camp, capture the Queen and deliver her back to his father, where she will continue to live as imprisoned puppet for the Knights' tyranny. The Chevakians know none of this, and struggle to contain the refugee population, and the dangerous sonorics contamination the people have brought from their ravaged country, contamination that defies Chevakian efforts to contain it, and is getting worse, not better. In their struggle for power, the Brotherhood and the Knights disturbed something from an ancient and magic civilisation. The sorcerer Tandor knows what happened, but he is on death row in a Chevakian jail. The southern woman Loriane is aware of the things that are required, but she is amongst Chevakians who can't understand her. The Chevakian proctor Sadorius han Chevonian could put the pieces of the puzzle together, but he is struggling to keep the peace, and besides, Chevakians don't believe in magic. Meanwhile, the massive, and malevolent, sonorics cloud drifts towards the city, hungry for revenge.

Where magic is dark and gritty, characters troubled and twisted, and victory comes at a heavy price. Following the destruction of the City of Glass through an explosion of sonorics, huge numbers of refugees have descended upon the Chevakian capital Tiverius. The refugees are mostly members of the rebel group Brotherhood of the Light, supporters of the old royal family. They are injured, scared and hungry, and few speak Chevakian. The young Queen Jevaithi and her lover Isandor are amongst them, safe from the Eagle Knights for now. Young Eagle Knight Carro is waiting in an old farmhouse with his fellow Knights for the order to invade the camp, capture the Queen and deliver her back to his father, where she will continue to live as imprisoned puppet for the Knights' tyranny. The Chevakians know none of this, and struggle to contain the refugee population, and the dangerous sonorics contamination the people have brought from their ravaged country, contamination that defies Chevakian efforts to contain it, and is getting worse, not better. In their struggle for power, the Brotherhood and the Knights disturbed something from an ancient and magic civilisation. The sorcerer Tandor knows what happened, but he is on death row in a Chevakian jail. The southern woman Loriane is aware of the things that are required, but she is amongst Chevakians who can't understand her. The Chevakian proctor Sadorius han Chevonian could put the pieces of the puzzle together, but he is struggling to keep the peace, and besides, Chevakians don't believe in magic. Meanwhile, the massive, and malevolent, sonorics cloud drifts towards the city, hungry for revenge.

If Miran had princesses, Ellisandra Takumar would be one. Smart, pretty, engaged to a high-profile man, everything a high-class Mirani woman should be. But things are not well in Miran. Many years of boycotts have taken their toll on society, and the regime becomes more desperate to keep its citizens under control. Revolt is brewing. As director of the state theatre, Ellisandra has been asked to stage a violent traditional play which stands stiff with threatening political messages for the populace. She hates it, but speaking out would risk that she'd be cast out from the only world she's ever known. Next to her house is the burnt ruin of the house of another high-class family, the Andrahar family. They fled Miran for political reasons when Ellisandra was a little girl and the house has lain untouched ever since. One night, she spots a mysterious young man walking around the yard, putting out pegs and pieces of string. He's re-building the house. That makes no sense, because the family is no longer welcome in Miran, and who is he anyway? She is curious and investigates. He seems too good-natured and na ve for his own good, so rather than telling her brothers, she tries to shield him from her own society. And so starts the slide that leads to her being cast out from the only life she's ever known.

The entire world laid to waste. There are no second chances. The ancient machine that produced icefire was destroyed twenty years ago, but the deadly magic is again on the increase. No one understands why or where it's coming from. Massive changes in weather patterns plunge the northern half of the inhabited world in deep drought. People are once again fleeing, but nowhere is safe. King Isandor sends people to investigate a concentration of icefire in the mountains at the border, but two consecutive patrols both vanish. It appears that, after having suffered badly in wars, the neighbouring country Arania is on the offensive, and is using icefire as weapon. Their culture is harsh and their barbarism knows no boundaries. Meanwhile two young meteorology students make a string of discoveries that will change the way the people understand the world. They're on the threshold of the age of enlightenment, but vital knowledge necessary to save their world may well get lost when war overruns the inhabited world.

Where magic is dark and gritty, characters troubled and twisted, and victory comes at a heavy price. Fifteen years ago, a brilliant scientist built a barrier against the dangerous power that radiates from the City of Glass in the southern land, allowing the citizens of Chevakia to live without fear of their lives. Since then, the democracy of Chevakia has prospered, with free-thinking scientists developing steam power and the beginnings of electricity. But the power, which they call sonorics, controls the weather in Chevakia. Senator Sadorius han Chevonian is the country's chief meteorologist. While taking measurements for his job, he is the first to notice a rapid rise of sonorics levels out-of-season. The senate is locked in trivial debate, and to make them listen, he has to take a step he never thought to make. After the huge explosion of the machine they call the Heart of the City, Loriane has fled the southern land with the sorcerer Tandor, who hovers in and out of consciousness. But while Tandor isn't speaking, she cannot confirm her fears that he caused the explosion, and that the child she carries has something to do with his twisted plans to seize power from the Eagle Knights who rule the City of Glass. Just before the explosion, southern queen Jevaithi fled into Chevakia with her young lover Isandor. While they think they're free of the tyranny of the Eagle Knights, it soon becomes clear something very bad has happened in the City of Glass soon after their escape. Something so bad that it sends waves of sonorics into Chevakia, causing even the Chevakians to flee. Several streams of refugees are heading for the Chevakian capital. Southerners by train, Chevakians by road, into a city that is tragically unprepared, a country in turmoil with a leader whose support hangs by the merest thread.