Magic has been corrupted. The kingdom of Veltak lies in ruins, its royal family dead and the Magicians’ Guild reduced to ash, while the dark sorcerer Barok Tana rules with an army of undead and stone‑forged abominations. Apprentice magician Stric Deamara survives the massacre, hurled twenty years into a ruined future by the Guild’s Grandmaster with a single, impossible quest.
Find the lost infant prince who was smuggled away the night the kingdom burned.
Guided by Talnar, an endlessly cynical book of ancient knowledge, Stric allies with Teela, a hardened survivor orphaned by Barok’s tyrannous rule. Their hunt for the missing heir leads them through ancient forests, hidden elven sanctuaries, and a closely guarded island of wormholes that hurls them into a terrifying modern world, where the true king has been locked away and gaslit into believing Veltak is only a delusion.
Bringing the king home is only the beginning. To tear down Barok’s rule, Stric must forge an unprecedented alliance between humans, elves, werewolves, fairies, and vampyres. He must awaken a rare power capable of harmonising all their magics through one fragile conduit.
If he fails, the Deathseed Crystal feeding Barok’s necromancy will consume Veltak forever, along with everyone he has come to call family.
Perfect for readers who love epic high fantasy with hard, rule‑driven magic systems and cinematic battles, found‑family bonds, slow‑burn, trauma‑aware character arcs, multi‑race alliances, and portal and time‑travel twists.
The Oracle’s Bridge is the first book in The Bridges of Magic Series, a sweeping epic about what it costs to heal a broken world when your greatest weapon is the power to bring divided peoples, and their magic, together.
A must‑read for fans of Jenn Lyons, James Islington, and Ryan Cahill.
My love of fantasy began the moment an eleven-year-old me opened The Hobbit for the first time. That single book changed everything.
In the years that followed, I devoured Tolkien's entire world, then moved outward. I found heroism in David Gemmell's Druss the Axeman, vast scope in Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga, and the inventive brilliance of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality and Apprentice Adept series. In my teens, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, and Herbert opened up science fiction and showed me just how far speculative storytelling could reach.
Those books didn't just entertain me. They shaped who I am today.
Most days, I'm a professional knifemaker under the name SLH Blades. I've been making knives since 2012, and what that craft has taught me is that making something worth holding takes patience, precision, and the willingness to start again when it isn't right. Writing, I've found, is exactly the same.
The Dreamers was my attempt to pay forward what Tolkien gave me: a portal fantasy placed in the hands of an eleven-year-old, in the hope it lights the same fire.
The Scholar's Shadow is a darker piece, a novella tracing the origins of one of my series' most complex antagonists, set in the same world as my larger work.
That larger work is The Oracle's Bridge, Book One of the Bridges of Magic series, my debut full-length novel and the one I've been building for nearly thirty years. Not out of procrastination, but because some stories demand time to become what they need to be. It draws on the heroic tradition that made Gemmell legendary, Tolkien's depth of character and world, and a touch of Anthony's creative unpredictability. It's the book I was always going to write, and it's out now.
Enjoyed the read and the new concepts introduced on magic, werewolves, and other creatures. Liked the portrayal of Elves and Guild issues throughout. Would be interested in a book 2 when it comes out!
I had the incredible pleasure of beta reading this book as Stacy was writing it. Each chapter went through several iterations throughout the process of development. I am so excited to have been able to read the final product that was 30 years in the making.
I hope that Teela will get her own book at some point because I would love to see the progression into what made her into the character she became.
If you are interested in reading “Thr Oracle’s Bridge,” I do recommend reading “The Scholar’s Shadow” first because the prequel sets the scene.