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Desert Mage
He was a tall man, with hands strong enough to straighten a horseshoe. His staff was ancient willow wood, the weapon of a man who could cast a spell with blinding speed. Now Doge Compher will need every deadly bit of his magic. The vampyren are sacrificing hostages in a monstrous spell, hostages he promised to protect. To reach them, he must travel a desert filled with nasty surprises. Worse, his allies have betrayal on their minds.
152 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 16, 2013
2 people want to read
About the author
P.M.F. Johnson
22 books19 followersI've always liked to mix things together that have never been put together before. So while I've aimed to make my epic fantasy novels fun and fast-paced, I also want them to have some depth, to last in the memory, maybe even to deepen the soul a little.
The best stories aren't just about facing troubles, I figure, but also admitting why we got into trouble in the first place, finding the courage to change, and getting back out again, somehow.
This work has resulted first in my Saga of Sinnesemota series: Disk of Dragons, Trollen Rose, Call of the Labyrinth, and most recently Dark Alley Magic. These novels follow the challenges, failures and successes of Rev Caern, Gabryal Lansdon, and their friends as they battle the evil that threatens their world.
I'm very happy about my most recent fantasy, Dark Alley Magic, where a young mother, Yusi Capulo, battles to free her children from a corrupt world of dark magic. She is in a medieval mobster family, and struggles to get out. It's a different theme than most fantasies, but the tension keeps growing, especially when Yusi meets Gabryal, acting as a prosecutor for the king. Gabryal wants her to testify against her family. That would be almost suicidal, except that Yusi is charged with murder, so Gabryal has leverage over her. It's a fast-paced tale, and I think you will enjoy it.
In a more casual vein, I started to think: what would cowboys be like in a fantasy world, living the frontier life while battling monsters? The result was my two weird western novels, Drifter Mage and Desert Mage.
Finally, I have three books of poetry out. A Life In The Day tells of the adventures of a life's pilgrim. Adding The Subtractions details the time of my father's passing. And closest to my heart, Against The Night tells of my life-long love for my wife, the writer Sandra Rector. In it, poems tell the tale of a long love, with joys, challenges, and surprises.
I hope you enjoy all of these books.
The best stories aren't just about facing troubles, I figure, but also admitting why we got into trouble in the first place, finding the courage to change, and getting back out again, somehow.
This work has resulted first in my Saga of Sinnesemota series: Disk of Dragons, Trollen Rose, Call of the Labyrinth, and most recently Dark Alley Magic. These novels follow the challenges, failures and successes of Rev Caern, Gabryal Lansdon, and their friends as they battle the evil that threatens their world.
I'm very happy about my most recent fantasy, Dark Alley Magic, where a young mother, Yusi Capulo, battles to free her children from a corrupt world of dark magic. She is in a medieval mobster family, and struggles to get out. It's a different theme than most fantasies, but the tension keeps growing, especially when Yusi meets Gabryal, acting as a prosecutor for the king. Gabryal wants her to testify against her family. That would be almost suicidal, except that Yusi is charged with murder, so Gabryal has leverage over her. It's a fast-paced tale, and I think you will enjoy it.
In a more casual vein, I started to think: what would cowboys be like in a fantasy world, living the frontier life while battling monsters? The result was my two weird western novels, Drifter Mage and Desert Mage.
Finally, I have three books of poetry out. A Life In The Day tells of the adventures of a life's pilgrim. Adding The Subtractions details the time of my father's passing. And closest to my heart, Against The Night tells of my life-long love for my wife, the writer Sandra Rector. In it, poems tell the tale of a long love, with joys, challenges, and surprises.
I hope you enjoy all of these books.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 22, 2022
This is, to cut it down to its absolute minimum description, L'Amour's "Last Stand at Papago Wells" given a fantasy treatment. Johnson has created a unique and interesting world that manages to include powerful magic and monsters into a sort of weird west setting without breaking the feel of the western frontier.
Drifter and mage Doge Compher (named before doge became a meme) runs into multiple strangers who all gather at a waterhole, trapped by "renegades" (basically bandits and troublemakers) while trying to deal with Vampyren, quasi vampires attempting to create a new one since they cannot breed or bite people to make a vampyre.
The writing is good, leaning pretty heavily on L'Amour's patterns and dialoge, but actually better done when the story breaks away from that mold. Its an unusual sort of fantasy that is worth reading, along with the others in this series.
Drifter and mage Doge Compher (named before doge became a meme) runs into multiple strangers who all gather at a waterhole, trapped by "renegades" (basically bandits and troublemakers) while trying to deal with Vampyren, quasi vampires attempting to create a new one since they cannot breed or bite people to make a vampyre.
The writing is good, leaning pretty heavily on L'Amour's patterns and dialoge, but actually better done when the story breaks away from that mold. Its an unusual sort of fantasy that is worth reading, along with the others in this series.
December 16, 2013
Desert Mage is a combination of the western and fantasy genre, featuring cowboys, hunters, settlers, and pillaging raiders. The villains in this case are the evil Vampyren, the malignant Shadow Folks, and the ruthless nomad renegades headed by the notorious Keq Ruhl.
I know the mixed genre sounds disconnected and I felt that way too at the beginning, but decided to throw away my disbelief and go with the story. It features several major characters that later congeal into a cooperative unit to fight off the bad guys. Set in a desert setting not unlike the boulder-laden territory of Southern Utah, it features ranchers and riders such as the gritty hunter protagonist, Doug Compher, who braves the lawless desert to rescue a friend's kidnapped Orcen child or the mysterious female rider named Harissa or a young damsel in distress trying to escape her abusive power-grabbing husband. They are every bit characters in a western novel complete with grit, horses and cowboy hats. But instead of guns, they are armed with swords, magic staff, and long bows. Along this treacherous desert landscape, readers are introduced to strange beings such as the cockroach-like goblens, the hovering whirligig spy beings, the invisible storm walkers, the evil and malignant shadow folk, the life-force sucking vampyren, and the lizard-like Orcen renegades and knights from various wilderness kingdoms.
The story is told from multiple point-of-views, characters that converge, cooperate or clash as the story unfolds. Like I said, it took me a while to suspend my disbelief especially since these fantasy characters seem to talk with a silly Texas twang, letting out slang lines like: "The blood ain't dry. We best be quiet and git" and "I'll have some rizzi fryin' in a jiff" or "Can't say as he knew 'ary a thing about demons." The dialect sometimes took me out of the fantasy world, but then, it humored me as well.
I always give strong points for narrative clarity and this one has it, the prose reading seamlessly in a linear fashion. There may have been too many characters introduced, each with his own POV and subplot, cluttering up the arc. With a slew of weird creatures throw in, I sometimes had trouble keeping track of them. But once I've written them down and knew who was who, I began to let go and enjoy the story for what it is: a far-out fantasy set in a western-like setting, inhabited by bizarre beings, some of which are so silly-colorful they left me chuckling in my couch (wait a minute, am I supposed to be humored?). But chuckle, I did. The story is about good guys versus bad guys, of characters thrown together and forced to deal with obstacles and danger. In western terms, these folks circled the wagons and fought off evil-doers like the vampyren and their army of marauders. What more can a reader ask? My advice is to let go, ride with it, and enjoy the fantasy trip. I DID.
I was provided a review copy of this book for an objective non-reciprocal review. I enjoyed the read, good enough for a 3.5 to 4-star rating.
I know the mixed genre sounds disconnected and I felt that way too at the beginning, but decided to throw away my disbelief and go with the story. It features several major characters that later congeal into a cooperative unit to fight off the bad guys. Set in a desert setting not unlike the boulder-laden territory of Southern Utah, it features ranchers and riders such as the gritty hunter protagonist, Doug Compher, who braves the lawless desert to rescue a friend's kidnapped Orcen child or the mysterious female rider named Harissa or a young damsel in distress trying to escape her abusive power-grabbing husband. They are every bit characters in a western novel complete with grit, horses and cowboy hats. But instead of guns, they are armed with swords, magic staff, and long bows. Along this treacherous desert landscape, readers are introduced to strange beings such as the cockroach-like goblens, the hovering whirligig spy beings, the invisible storm walkers, the evil and malignant shadow folk, the life-force sucking vampyren, and the lizard-like Orcen renegades and knights from various wilderness kingdoms.
The story is told from multiple point-of-views, characters that converge, cooperate or clash as the story unfolds. Like I said, it took me a while to suspend my disbelief especially since these fantasy characters seem to talk with a silly Texas twang, letting out slang lines like: "The blood ain't dry. We best be quiet and git" and "I'll have some rizzi fryin' in a jiff" or "Can't say as he knew 'ary a thing about demons." The dialect sometimes took me out of the fantasy world, but then, it humored me as well.
I always give strong points for narrative clarity and this one has it, the prose reading seamlessly in a linear fashion. There may have been too many characters introduced, each with his own POV and subplot, cluttering up the arc. With a slew of weird creatures throw in, I sometimes had trouble keeping track of them. But once I've written them down and knew who was who, I began to let go and enjoy the story for what it is: a far-out fantasy set in a western-like setting, inhabited by bizarre beings, some of which are so silly-colorful they left me chuckling in my couch (wait a minute, am I supposed to be humored?). But chuckle, I did. The story is about good guys versus bad guys, of characters thrown together and forced to deal with obstacles and danger. In western terms, these folks circled the wagons and fought off evil-doers like the vampyren and their army of marauders. What more can a reader ask? My advice is to let go, ride with it, and enjoy the fantasy trip. I DID.
I was provided a review copy of this book for an objective non-reciprocal review. I enjoyed the read, good enough for a 3.5 to 4-star rating.
December 1, 2013
Desert Mage is a cleverly written bit of fantasy. Fans of the genre will be engaged by Doge. It was an interesting read that held my attention throughout.
The story is organized in a manner similar to diary entries, though it is written in the third person. The sequence of events is labeled with when the events happened in the story. That makes it easy to follow. The same can be said for the writer's style of storytelling. The world created for the story is described well so that the reader can understand the rules of the world in this particular story. The structure of the language used is clear and concise, making it easy for the reader to focus on understanding and enjoying the world the author has created and the story of Doge.
If you are a fan of fantasy, magic, and mythical creatures, you will find something to enjoy about Desert Mage.
The story is organized in a manner similar to diary entries, though it is written in the third person. The sequence of events is labeled with when the events happened in the story. That makes it easy to follow. The same can be said for the writer's style of storytelling. The world created for the story is described well so that the reader can understand the rules of the world in this particular story. The structure of the language used is clear and concise, making it easy for the reader to focus on understanding and enjoying the world the author has created and the story of Doge.
If you are a fan of fantasy, magic, and mythical creatures, you will find something to enjoy about Desert Mage.
January 9, 2014
A wonderfully engaging fantasy story! I really enjoyed reading 'Desert Mage.' The author's use of imagery was fantastic, making the landscape, characters, and battle scenes come alive! Wonderful build-up, great main characters, well-written dialogue. I liked Doge and all of his companions. There were cool 'creatures,' uses of magic, everything one wants from a fantasy.
October 23, 2013
Incredible fun to read. Love Doge. Lot of adventure and dangerous magic. Can't get much better than that.
December 23, 2016
Mr Johnson has one hell of an imagination and has cooked up a little gem in Desert Mage. Every character has real substance, the plot is solid, moves along at decent pace, hooks you in from the first page and well... it's the perfect book for those who like a bit of fantasy adventure. I honestly can't think of a single justifiable criticism.
The dark world the author creates is one filled with magic, strange creatures and various races of beings that leaves you wanting more. There is definitely an opportunity for several more books on the back of this. It's certainly an excellent beginning.
The dark world the author creates is one filled with magic, strange creatures and various races of beings that leaves you wanting more. There is definitely an opportunity for several more books on the back of this. It's certainly an excellent beginning.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews