The sylvan planet Emeralla has been devoured by the Waste-Wyrm, a cosmic dragon that feasts upon worlds. When Zeeky and her allies flee Emeralla back to Earth, they are pursued by the Waste-Wyrm's servant, the Kraken. The Kraken raises an army of the dead to open the interdimensional gate that will give the cosmic predator access to Earth. Can humans and dragons put aside their ancient hatreds to unite against their common foe?
Angels, is the thrilling conclusion to the Dragonsgate trilogy. In this saga, dragons and humans are at war in the ruins of post-apocalyptic America. In the ruins of Oak Ridge Tennessee, a malfunctioning machine hidden in a government laboratory has ripped a hole in reality, and now dinosaurs are appearing in the surrounding wilderness. When a band of adventurers led by the famed dragon-slayer, Bitterwood, sets out to destroy the malfunctioning machine, some of them are swept away to a parallel earth where humans have never evolved. On this world, magic is real due the presence of a cosmic dragon named Emeralla. Unfortunately, cosmic dragons are the favorite meal of an even larger cosmic dragon, the planet devouring Waste-Wyrm. Now, Bitterwood must battle devils, spirits, and angels across a series of parallel worlds if he hopes to save his own reality from the interstellar predator.
This series freely blends science fiction, epic fantasy, and eldritch horror, for an adventure unlike any other. It also draws in characters from James Maxey's previous sagas, Bitterwood and Dragon Apocalypse, though the series can be read without having previously read those works.
I've been an avid reader since I first picked up a book. Luckily, I was within biking distance of three different libraries growing up. I was a skinny kid. If only I had maintained that link between biking and reading, I might be a skinny adult.
I'm also a writer. I wrote my first book as a kid, an adventure about pirates and ghosts. When I was a teenager, I used to write superhero adventures. Then I went to college and was steered toward writing "literature." It took me several years to shake that off, and today I write the sort of books I devoured by the shelf when I was sixteen, fast-paced fantasy, SF, and superhero adventures, which I use to explore deeper questions about life. My goal is to always be thought-provoking and always be fun.
I've had short stories in about a dozen anthologies and magazines. My novels to date are:
Nobody Gets the Girl
The Dragon Age trilogy Bitterwood Dragonforge Dragonseed
Burn Baby Burn
The Dragon Apocalypse Greatshadow (January 2012) -- A team of superpowered adventurers are recruited by the Church of the Book to extinguish the primal dragon of fire, Greatshadow.
Hush (July 2012) -- An effort to complete a quest for a fallen friend, the warrior woman Infidel stumbles onto a plot to kill Glorious, the primal dragon of the sun, and plunge the world into permanent cold and darkness, the elemental domain of the dragon Hush.
Witchbreaker (January 2013) -- A young witch named Sorrow has lost control of her magic after tapping into the spirit of Rott, the primal dragon of decay. Her desperate quest to save what remains of her humanity leads to an uneasy alliance with an amnesiatic warrior who might be the legendary champion of the church known as the Witchbreaker. But can there combined powers prevail when they trigger the wrath of Tempest, the primal dragon of storms?
Dragonsgate: angels is the payoff one is searching for if you have come this far in the bitterwood series.
The author remembers and makes use of every thread left and ties things together into a conclusive knot. Im very happy with where the characters went in the end.
In a story as far ranging in what it tackles as far as gizmos from vastly different eras-magical and technological alike- its a crowning achievement to make it all feel connected and part of the same world.
Thanks for your work james maxey, i'll very much miss this world you've written.