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The Secret Histories #1
The First Age
Where Angels Fear to Tread
Mikal despised the idea of working with an Imperial, for reasons both personal and political, but only the invaders’ magic could repair the artifact weapon that was the last link to a family he’d left behind. Rian was a magician by trade, trying to escape the obligations of his noble birth, and the life his family planned out for him. Living incognito at the border of Imperial territory, he found his solitude interrupted by a mysterious visitor with an impossible commission. Their meeting will set in motion a chain of events that will irrevocably alter everything they know of the world, and set their two civilizations on a course to ruin.
Mikal despised the idea of working with an Imperial, for reasons both personal and political, but only the invaders’ magic could repair the artifact weapon that was the last link to a family he’d left behind. Rian was a magician by trade, trying to escape the obligations of his noble birth, and the life his family planned out for him. Living incognito at the border of Imperial territory, he found his solitude interrupted by a mysterious visitor with an impossible commission. Their meeting will set in motion a chain of events that will irrevocably alter everything they know of the world, and set their two civilizations on a course to ruin.
115 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 25, 2019
11 people are currently reading
1528 people want to read
About the author
Arshad Ahsanuddin
67 books208 followersBy profession, I am a hematopathologist, a laboratory physician who specializes in diagnosis of diseases of blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes, such as leukemia and lymphoma. In my off time, I write LGBT Fantasy and Scifi books. Yes, I realize the irony that I write about vampires. ;)
Note: I do not guarantee a happy ending to any individual book within each series.
Note: I do not guarantee a happy ending to any individual book within each series.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 5, 2022
Welp. I can tell I'm in for another rough ride.
May 26, 2020
The world-building is fantastically detailed in all the author's works I've read (to date) and this proved no exception. Same thing with regards to the magical and paranormal mechanisms. I'm also amazed at how much plot has been packed into the brevity of this first installment!
However, I've not warmed to either of the MCs - Mikal / Rial, despite what little so far has been provided on their backstories (and their difficult / fractured familial relationships). I'm not expecting the complex convolutions of the Interscission Project as do not seem to be involved here. Hints of vampiric activity is looking more likely though ... and I'm not really a blood-drinking paranormal fan (hence why I've avoided the author's Pact Arcanum series. But I'm willing to see where Ahsanuddin is taking this series. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.
However, I've not warmed to either of the MCs - Mikal / Rial, despite what little so far has been provided on their backstories (and their difficult / fractured familial relationships). I'm not expecting the complex convolutions of the Interscission Project as do not seem to be involved here. Hints of vampiric activity is looking more likely though ... and I'm not really a blood-drinking paranormal fan (hence why I've avoided the author's Pact Arcanum series. But I'm willing to see where Ahsanuddin is taking this series. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.
February 2, 2022
Well that was a fun start to a new series. I really love Arshad's writing and have enjoyed many of his series' over the years. This was different yet again, but such fun for a start. I love the idea of the forest consciousness and the differences between Western magic and that of the Empire.
Mikal and Rian were really great characters. They come from such different backgrounds, but the potential is there for a bridge to form and the two to share the differences in their magic. Of course there's also a ton of trouble brewing on the horizon with Rian's uncle's search for power in the worst places. There's going to be some real problems coming down the line that I'm sure that Mikal and Rian are going to be right in the center of it all along with Mikal's family and Rian's assigned assassin bodyguard.
This felt like an introduction and I can't wait to read more.
Mikal and Rian were really great characters. They come from such different backgrounds, but the potential is there for a bridge to form and the two to share the differences in their magic. Of course there's also a ton of trouble brewing on the horizon with Rian's uncle's search for power in the worst places. There's going to be some real problems coming down the line that I'm sure that Mikal and Rian are going to be right in the center of it all along with Mikal's family and Rian's assigned assassin bodyguard.
This felt like an introduction and I can't wait to read more.
October 24, 2021
Intriguing, unusual, spell-binding
This was an interesting story that lured me in right away. I thought the story that involved Mikal, and Rian was compelling, hard to put down fantasy. The author creates a world that you, as a reader, want to become a part of, and understand. A thoroughly enjoyable tale!
This was an interesting story that lured me in right away. I thought the story that involved Mikal, and Rian was compelling, hard to put down fantasy. The author creates a world that you, as a reader, want to become a part of, and understand. A thoroughly enjoyable tale!
March 9, 2020
The First Age (The Secret Histories, Book 1)
By Arshad Ahsanuddin
Genre - Fiction/Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance/LGBT
Pages - 155
Publication Information - Independently Published, December 16, 2019
ISBN - 10: 1676389334 ISBN - 13: 978-1676389330
Format - Print (Paperback)
Reviewed by: William C. Bitner, Jr., https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
‘The First Age (The Secret Histories, Book 1)’ by Arshad Ahsanuddin is the beginning of something quite riveting and extraordinarily enchanting. While Arshad’s other books have a strong science fiction feel to them this one seems to be more grounded in an earthly type of world. Elemental magic, spells, healing and magical warfare are key components in this tale. Arshad introduces us to a whole new group of captivating characters and invites us into newly imagined and well constructed worlds. From start to finish you will find yourself engaged and getting more and more absorbed into the story. The dialogue is quick paced the mood is atmospheric and fantastical. I am so looking forward to the further adventures of these characters and moving forward in this story.
Note: While each series conforms to standard conventions regarding the romance genre overall, Arshad does not guarantee an HEA or HFN ending to any individual book within the series.
From the back cover: Mikal despised the idea of working with an Imperial, for reasons both personal and political, but only the invaders’ magic could repair the artifact weapon that was the last link to a family he’d left behind. Rian was a magician by trade, trying to escape the obligations of his noble birth, and the life his family planned out for him. Living incognito at the border of Imperial territory, he found his solitude interrupted by a mysterious visitor with an impossible commission. Their meeting will set in motion a chain of events that will irrevocably alter everything they know of the world, and set their two civilizations on a course to ruin.
About the Author: By profession Arshad is a hematopathologist, a laboratory physician who specializes in diagnosis of diseases of blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes, such as leukemia and lymphoma.
The Interscission Project is space opera/time travel/gay romance. His previous works are part of an unrelated paranormal romance series, the Pact Arcanum Saga, which consists of five books: Sunset, Cathedral of the Sky, Sunrise, Moonlight, and Starlight. It is best described as non-explicit, near-future gay vampire space opera.
Other work from Arshad Ahsanuddin: ‘Sunset (Pact Arcanum, Book 1)’, ‘Sunrise (Pact Arcanum, Book 2)’, ‘Moonlight (Pact Arcanum, Book 3)’, ‘Starlight (Pact Arcanum, Book 4)’, ‘Zenith (The Interscission Project, Book 1)’, ‘Azimuth (The Interscission Project, Book 2)’, ‘Insurrection (The Interscission Project, Book 3)’, ‘Mercury (The Interscission Project, Book 4)’, ‘Ascension (The Interscission Project, Book 5), et. al...
By Arshad Ahsanuddin
Genre - Fiction/Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance/LGBT
Pages - 155
Publication Information - Independently Published, December 16, 2019
ISBN - 10: 1676389334 ISBN - 13: 978-1676389330
Format - Print (Paperback)
Reviewed by: William C. Bitner, Jr., https://booksinmylibraryblog.wordpres...
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
‘The First Age (The Secret Histories, Book 1)’ by Arshad Ahsanuddin is the beginning of something quite riveting and extraordinarily enchanting. While Arshad’s other books have a strong science fiction feel to them this one seems to be more grounded in an earthly type of world. Elemental magic, spells, healing and magical warfare are key components in this tale. Arshad introduces us to a whole new group of captivating characters and invites us into newly imagined and well constructed worlds. From start to finish you will find yourself engaged and getting more and more absorbed into the story. The dialogue is quick paced the mood is atmospheric and fantastical. I am so looking forward to the further adventures of these characters and moving forward in this story.
Note: While each series conforms to standard conventions regarding the romance genre overall, Arshad does not guarantee an HEA or HFN ending to any individual book within the series.
From the back cover: Mikal despised the idea of working with an Imperial, for reasons both personal and political, but only the invaders’ magic could repair the artifact weapon that was the last link to a family he’d left behind. Rian was a magician by trade, trying to escape the obligations of his noble birth, and the life his family planned out for him. Living incognito at the border of Imperial territory, he found his solitude interrupted by a mysterious visitor with an impossible commission. Their meeting will set in motion a chain of events that will irrevocably alter everything they know of the world, and set their two civilizations on a course to ruin.
About the Author: By profession Arshad is a hematopathologist, a laboratory physician who specializes in diagnosis of diseases of blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes, such as leukemia and lymphoma.
The Interscission Project is space opera/time travel/gay romance. His previous works are part of an unrelated paranormal romance series, the Pact Arcanum Saga, which consists of five books: Sunset, Cathedral of the Sky, Sunrise, Moonlight, and Starlight. It is best described as non-explicit, near-future gay vampire space opera.
Other work from Arshad Ahsanuddin: ‘Sunset (Pact Arcanum, Book 1)’, ‘Sunrise (Pact Arcanum, Book 2)’, ‘Moonlight (Pact Arcanum, Book 3)’, ‘Starlight (Pact Arcanum, Book 4)’, ‘Zenith (The Interscission Project, Book 1)’, ‘Azimuth (The Interscission Project, Book 2)’, ‘Insurrection (The Interscission Project, Book 3)’, ‘Mercury (The Interscission Project, Book 4)’, ‘Ascension (The Interscission Project, Book 5), et. al...
May 30, 2020
Ulysses Dietz Member of The Paranormal Guild Review Team
Rating: five stars
Title: The First Age: Where Angels Fear to Tread (Secret Histories Book 1)
Author: Arshad Ahsanuddin
Publisher: The author
Genre: fantasy
M/M
Publication date: 2019
Page count: TBD
“What is the first rule of magic?”
“Ignorance is for the weak.”
I give this five stars because Arshad Ahsanuddin’s writing is marvelous and elegant. His world-building is also pretty fantastic, and subtle in addition. There are no great info-dumps that try to explain a whole new universe, just details along the way that create bright points of understanding that build upon themselves as the narrative proceeds. The reader does feel as if they’ve been dropped into the middle of something, but bit by bit a picture emerges and they feel at home.
I was struck by the not-too-heavily veiled parallels that Ahsanuddin’s universe has with our own world – a highly industrial and mineral-based magical civilization colonizes and marginalizes an earth-and-plant-based magical civilization that it constantly refers to as “primitive.” Even the kinds of magic used by the two civilizations – at peace now, but with a mutual enmity dating back three thousand years – are very different. I’ll note that there’s a distinctly “Star Wars” feeling about the technology, but the importance of magic is one of those fascinating tropes that I attribute to the Harry Potter phenomenon.
When Mikal, a border warden, finds himself in need of special skills to repair his bow after an accident in the wilderness, he seeks out a gifted young magical craftsman on the margins of one of the Empire’s provincial cities near the heavily forested borderlands. Rian is utterly fascinated by the magical technology of Mikal’s bow, and tries to trick Mikal into revealing more than he wishes to. The twist here is that Rian is Madrian Tanek, whose father is the governor of the largest Imperial city in the New World. Rian’s ongoing interest in Mikal and his people’s magic leads to a whole series of complications that bring the Westerners into confrontation with the Imperials once more.
Needless to say, both young men have daddy issues, Rian with his father, Darin Tanek, and Mikal with his father, Merran. One of the more interesting of those complications is that Merran was a governmental assassin and bodyguard, an Imperial Edge, before marrying Mikal’s “primitive” mother. The fact that Mikal and Rian find each other very attractive is also something that promises all sort of emotional hullabaloo going forward.
Meanwhile, the rebellious Rian’s even more rebellious uncle, Laras Tanek, is a frustrated wizard scholar, yearning to dig deep into old magic and parts of the Empire’s past that other wizards really want him to stay out of. This furnishes the plot with a whole other set of complications, leading up to a surprising denouement will surely be a catalyst for the plot of the second book, “Fire and Darkness.”
Rating: five stars
Title: The First Age: Where Angels Fear to Tread (Secret Histories Book 1)
Author: Arshad Ahsanuddin
Publisher: The author
Genre: fantasy
M/M
Publication date: 2019
Page count: TBD
“What is the first rule of magic?”
“Ignorance is for the weak.”
I give this five stars because Arshad Ahsanuddin’s writing is marvelous and elegant. His world-building is also pretty fantastic, and subtle in addition. There are no great info-dumps that try to explain a whole new universe, just details along the way that create bright points of understanding that build upon themselves as the narrative proceeds. The reader does feel as if they’ve been dropped into the middle of something, but bit by bit a picture emerges and they feel at home.
I was struck by the not-too-heavily veiled parallels that Ahsanuddin’s universe has with our own world – a highly industrial and mineral-based magical civilization colonizes and marginalizes an earth-and-plant-based magical civilization that it constantly refers to as “primitive.” Even the kinds of magic used by the two civilizations – at peace now, but with a mutual enmity dating back three thousand years – are very different. I’ll note that there’s a distinctly “Star Wars” feeling about the technology, but the importance of magic is one of those fascinating tropes that I attribute to the Harry Potter phenomenon.
When Mikal, a border warden, finds himself in need of special skills to repair his bow after an accident in the wilderness, he seeks out a gifted young magical craftsman on the margins of one of the Empire’s provincial cities near the heavily forested borderlands. Rian is utterly fascinated by the magical technology of Mikal’s bow, and tries to trick Mikal into revealing more than he wishes to. The twist here is that Rian is Madrian Tanek, whose father is the governor of the largest Imperial city in the New World. Rian’s ongoing interest in Mikal and his people’s magic leads to a whole series of complications that bring the Westerners into confrontation with the Imperials once more.
Needless to say, both young men have daddy issues, Rian with his father, Darin Tanek, and Mikal with his father, Merran. One of the more interesting of those complications is that Merran was a governmental assassin and bodyguard, an Imperial Edge, before marrying Mikal’s “primitive” mother. The fact that Mikal and Rian find each other very attractive is also something that promises all sort of emotional hullabaloo going forward.
Meanwhile, the rebellious Rian’s even more rebellious uncle, Laras Tanek, is a frustrated wizard scholar, yearning to dig deep into old magic and parts of the Empire’s past that other wizards really want him to stay out of. This furnishes the plot with a whole other set of complications, leading up to a surprising denouement will surely be a catalyst for the plot of the second book, “Fire and Darkness.”
October 27, 2021
I loved the world building, and how all the character stories fit together, especially the connection between Mikal and Rian. The magic system is interesting and well thought out. This is the first of a series, and doesn’t stand alone or give a feeling of wrapping up this portion of the storyline.
April 5, 2020
I’m coming back to rate it a bit too long afterwards. I finished reading it, so that says something. Hahaha. I did have to skim the end to remember how it ended, so it wasn’t hugely memorable. Not sure if I’ll grab the next book or not.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews