"Flames of Attrition"

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Corren of Jeska has stepped into the kingship at a critical moment—war is at hand. If he’s to save his country, he’ll need all his strategic genius, the determination of his guardsmen … and dangerous new technology wrested from a device that doesn’t belong in this world. In the midst of turmoil, Corren must contend with an imminent invasion, his fractured family, and civilian distrust. In days, an army of invaders—including hundreds of child conscripts brainwashed by the shamans—will march into Jeska. His wife and son are missing—trapped behind enemy lines. He’s brought the Council of Elders evidence that the shamans are conspiring against them—but the elders believe the enemy’s lies that Corren’s corrupt. They’ve agreed to leave him in place only until the war is over. Flames of Attrition is a military memoir from a world not so different from ours—with social conflicts, self-centered politicians, murderous connivers, insurrectionists, and soldiers tasked with holding the country together against all odds. At the same time, it’s a strange world, one where fake shamans chafe under a matriarchal system and scheme to establish a new, patriarchal order. One where a nation’s priorities are set by women whose mission is to protect and conserve the land. One where the kingship is ordinarily a routine government job subject to the rule of a council of elders. It’s Corren’s bad luck that in his lifetime, the kingship will demand all his military skills—and more. This book concludes a duology, The Unremembered King. It’s part of the Patchwork Universe collection, alternative-universe science fiction with a twist, each set in one of the myriad interconnected universes postulated by modern quantum physics. While the stories in each universe stand alone, you’ll have fun spotting cameos by characters from other stories and figuring out which side-characters have a shot at interfering with the action in more than one book.