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S J A Turney is a renowned British writer of historical fiction and historical fantasy novels. He has written several mind-blowing books and series in his career, including the Praetorian series, Marius’ Mules series, The Ottoman Cycle series, Tales of the Empire series, and the Knights Templar series. Turney’s books have successfully reached out to a large number of readers in different parts of the world and have wide fame and acclaim. In addition to writing under his original name, Turney uses the pen name of Simon Turney for writing some of his other books. He was born in Ripon, United Kingdom; and currently resides in North Yorkshire along with his beloved wife and kids. Turney has a great fondness for pet animals and has kept a menagerie of animals in his house. Turney has a separate room for himself, where he sits down to write his novels. He considers it as his office and can often be found sitting with a cup of coffee and some digestive biscuits.
While he tries to create engrossing stories out of his imaginations, his kids run around playing with their toys and his dogs howl around his desk as they fight amongst themselves. Author Turney is a born & bred Yorkshireman. He has a great love for history, architecture, and his country. In his free time, Turney likes to travel to ancient sites to research about their history. Sometimes, he even takes up voracious reading and writing on his travels. Author Turney followed an eclectic and arcane career path that included Microsoft networks, paint sales, car sales, etc., and wrote the Marius’ Mules books. He got support and help in getting the series published and achieved great success with each of its books. Now, Turney has more than 30 books to his name. He has established himself as a full-time writer and is represented by the literary agents of MMB Creative.
The Marius’ Mules novels penned by Turney feature Roman military stories based on the campaigns of Julius Caesar. His Praetorian novels consist of Roman thrillers and are set at the time of Commodus’ rule, while the Ottoman Cycle books feature medieval adventures set during the 15the century that follow the life story of a young thief from Greece. While juggling through his different career paths early in his career, Turney joined the university to earn an honors degree. He studied at the Open University and obtained a classical history degree.
At around the same time, he developed a keen interest in Roman history and began studying the war campaigns of Caesar. Subsequently, he completed Marius’ Mules’ first volume in 2003 and attracted a lot of attention both nationally and internationally for his work. Turney went on to achieve the status of a bestseller writer and earned rave reviews from many prominent critics. With numerous books published already, Turney has five more books lined up for release. He is considered a prolific author with work spanning different eras and genres. Turney publishes his books both independently and under the banner of renowned publishers. Orion and Canelo are the ones that often publish his work.
A popular book series written by author S J A Turney is known as The Ottoman Cycle series. It is comprised of a total of 4 books released between 2013 and 2015. Turney has set this series towards the end of the 15th century and has mentioned primary characters in the roles of Sultan Bayexid II, Lykaion, Skiouros, Nicolo, Parmenio, Kemel Reis, Cem, Dragi, etc. The stories take place in Istanbul, Iraklion, Crete, Spain, and Vatican City. Skiouros and Lykaion are introduced as the sons of a country farmer from Greece. They start from being Janissary guards to becoming pickpockets at the time of the Ottoman empire. The debut book of the historical fiction series is entitled ‘The Thief’s Tale’. It was released in 2013 by the Victrix Books publication. This book is set in Istanbul and Iraklion in 1481. Initially, it is depicted that Constantine, which is the center of the Ottoman empire, has a good mix of Jew, Turk, and Christian. In spite of the rule of Sultan Bayezid, Constantine’s conquest is still fresh in the minds of its inhabitants, who are filled with too much of emotions. They live in fear of losing their lives during the benevolent sultan’s rule.
When Lykaion & Skiouros get the offer to join the renowned Janissary guards and move to Istanbul, they accept the offer. They expect to play an important role in creating a new regime’s history. As the brothers arrive in Istanbul, Skiouros disappears into the city to live life on his own terms. Lykaion decides to stay back in the slave chain and live the rest of his life as the Imperial palace’s guard and an Islamic convert. Even after getting separated, the two remain brothers and long for uniting again. Skiouros starts to earn his living by pickpocketing and becomes a master at it. In the autumn of 1490, he picks a wrong pocket that leads him into the trap of a deadly plot involving those at the highest peaks. A time comes when Skiouros and Lykaion wonder whether the Ottoman Sultan’s rule is worth saving.
The second volume of the series is called ‘The Priest’s Tale’. It was also published by Victrix publication in 2013. This book is set in Crete in 1492. This book opens by showing that Skiouros mourns the death of his brother Lykiaon for a year on an island. He is determined to avenge the murder of his brother by killing one last conspirator involved in the deadly plot that took his brother’s life. Skiouros undergoes sword training and learns the languages of the enemies as well as his peers. He also learns everything that he thinks is useful in fulfilling his quest. Due to some unavoidable circumstances, Skiouros is forced to begin his journey and is assisted by his close friends Nicolo and Parmenio. Meanwhile, a war is going on across the Mediterranean among the Islamic and Christian rulers. A naval commander named Kemel Reis fights to save the lives of innocent, but his subordinates look to kill every Christian. Skiouros and his friends are driven away from their quest due to multiple calamities. They are brought to face unsettling and harsh truths. Skiouros finds himself tested to his endurance’s extreme limit.
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Is Fires of Tarterus available?
Brilliant books. Thank you.
Is there going to be a Marius Mules XIII an if so when?