Richard Garriott

New York Times bestselling author Tracy Hickman and award-winning video game designer Richard Garriott begin their epic fantasy Blade of the Avatar series with The Sword of Midras--a thrilling prequel to the Shroud of the Avatar video game. The world died during the Fall. Abandoned by the mighty Avatars and their Virtues, the people who remained were left defenseless in an untamed land. That is, until the Obsidians came. Through dark sorcery and overwhelming force the Obsidian Empire brought order to chaos, no matter the cost. Aren Bennis is a Captain in the Obsidian Army who has seen enough of what a world without Virtue looks like and is willing to do whatever it takes to establish a lasting peace. But after finding a magical sword that only he can wield, a sword his trusted scout, Syenna, claims is a blade once used by the legendary Avatars, Aren is thrown into a far more unfamiliar battle. One fought with whispered words and betrayal instead of swords and arrows. Running out of allies, Aren's only hope for survival is to discover the true nature of the ancient weapon he wears at his side. In order to do that, Aren will have to turn to the empire's enemies and, in doing so, he will discover what order at the hands of the Obsidians really means.

Richard Garriott has been many things: video game pioneer; wildly successful entrepreneur; and daring adventurer. In 1997, Garriott, who is known online by the handle "Lord British," forever changed the video game industry when he published Ultima Online, the first massively multiplayer, online role-playing game (MMORPG). Garriott's game, highly successful in its own right, was the originator of a genre that would later spawn such smash hits as World of Warcraft, and it was the first videogame to truly tap into the transformative power of the internet. Garriott made hundreds of millions on Ultima and subsequent games, and spent much of the money funding expeditions to the furthest reaches of the earth -- and outer space. Drawing upon the two guiding tenets of Garriott's life -- exploration and creation -- his memoir, Explore/Create, follows his many passions to the extraordinary places they have taken him. Garriott brings us on an expedition to Antarctica to hunt for meteorites, and explores the wreckage of the Titanic in a submarine (nearly dying in the process). He becomes one of the first civilians to fly in outer space, and later arranges a zero-G flight for Stephen Hawking, watching the legendary physicist experience weightlessness for the first time. And above all, Garriott introduces us to many of the wondrous and magical things we can find in our own backyards. A larger-than-life figure, Garriott has been hailed as a "game god" (PC Gamer), as one of "The 6 Most Interesting Men You Can Actually Meet" (Maxim), and was the inspiration for one of the main characters in Ernest Cline's bestselling novel Ready Player One (movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg forthcoming). Here, in his own words, is his extraordinary life story.

The thrilling prequel to Shroud of the Avatar from Portalarium The world died during the Fall. Abandoned by the mighty Avatars and their Virtues, the people who remained were left defenseless in an untamed land. That is, until the Obsidians came. Through dark sorcery and overwhelming force the Obsidian Empire brought order to chaos, no matter the cost. Aren Bennis is a Captain in the Obsidian Army who has seen enough of what a world without Virtue looks like and is willing to do whatever it takes to establish a lasting peace. But after finding a magical sword that only he can wield, a sword his trusted scout, Syenna, claims is a blade once used by the legendary Avatars, Aren is thrown into a far more unfamiliar battle. One fought with whispered words and betrayal instead of swords and arrows. Running out of allies, Aren's only hope for survival is to discover the true nature of the ancient weapon he wears at his side. In order to do that, Aren will have to turn to the empire's enemies and, in doing so, he will discover what order at the hands of the Obsidians really means.