Blake Charlton Books In Order

Publication Order of Spellwright Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Blake Charlton was born in Stanford, CA, The United States in 1979. Blake Charlton is currently a proud dyslexic, yet as a young boy he used to hate the condition which kept him illiterate. Blake learnt to read fluently just by sneaking some fantasy novels into 7th grade special studies hall. Since then Blake Charlton has served as JV football coach, medical student, special education advocate, high school English tutor and a resident physician. Blake is currently a cardiology fellow at University of California in San Francisco. His non-fiction work has managed to appear in New York Times, American Medical Association’s Internal Medicine and The British Medical’s Journal. His science fiction short novels have also appeared in the Unfettered anthologies and Seeds of Change. Blake Charlton is the author of 2 critically acclaimed fantasy books, Spellwright and Spellbound. Blake early novels Spellbound and Spellwright are published by The Tor Books in United States and The Harper Voyager in United Kingdom. The two novels have already been translated into a total of 9 languages.

Spellwright

Blake Charlton’s debut novel presents a refreshingly new look at the power of words and magic. Imagine a whole new world where you can peel written words from a page and then make the written words physically real. You may pick your teeth using a single sentence fragments, protect yourself using defensive paragraphs or even thrust the sharply-worded sentence at the enemy’s throat.

Such a type of world is the home to Nicodemus Weal. Nicodemus is an apprentice at the wizardly academy of Starhaven. Based on how fast he is able to forge the magical runes that usually create spells, Nicodemus Weal was thought as being the Halcyon; a very powerful spellwright who was prophesied to prevent an event known as War of Disjunction. The event would destroy all the human language. However, there was only one major problem: Nicodemus Weal could not spell.

Runes ought to be placed in the correct order so as to create a spell. Deviation eventually results in a “misspell” which basically refers to a flawed text that later behaves in an erratic and sometimes lethal, manner. In addition, Nicodemus Weal has a disability known as cacography that usually causes Nico to misspel the texts just by touching them.

Now 25, Nicodemus lives in the aftermath of having failed to fulfill the prophecy. He later finds solace only in reading the knightly romances and in teachings of the Magister Shannon, an old and blind wizard who has left academic politics so as to care for the Starhaven’s disabled students.

However when a powerful wizard is killed with a misspell, Nicodemus Weal and Shannon Magister becomes the primary suspects. The process of proving their innocence becomes quite harder when the murderer starts killing the male cacographers one by one…and all evidences suggests that Nicodemus Weal will be next. Hunted by both the hidden killer and investigators, Nicodemus and Shannon must race in order to discover the whole truth about the murders, nature of magic as well as themselves.

Blake Charlton hasn’t only invented a very fascinating world and then populated it with realistic people and grisly, wonderful monsters, but he has also managed to create one of the few original magical systems that we’ve seen in the fantasy fiction. The lucid complexity of magic is high praise indeed. The plot fascinates people to see what happens next and they shall certainly be following each and every word with the absorption of the apprentice spellwright.

Spellbound

Francesca DeVega is the healer within the Avel city. The city comprises of magical sentences that dispel curses and close wounds. However, her life is later thrown into chaos after a dead patient wakes up and then tells Francesca that she will have to flee the hospital or else she will face a fate that’s worse as compared to death. Francesca is now at the centre of a game that she does not understand; a game that has tied her to the rogue Nicodemus Weal and then brings her head-on with demigods, demons and a man that she hoped she’ll never see again.

It has been 10 years since Nicodemus escaped Starhaven Academy; a place where he used to be considered useless and disabled, where Nico battled the demon that murdered his friends and stole his birthright. Unable to utilize magical languages used by his very own people, Nicodemus has honed all his skills within the darker Chthonic language, readying himself for the following encounter with the demons. However, there are still complications. His mentor suddenly suffers from a certain incurable curse, the half-sister’s agents are desperately looking for him and yet he’s still not very sure about the part that DeVega will play. Nico certainly does not know what he should make of Francesca DeVega herself.

Introducing some new twists on the original magical systems of Spellwright and also uncovering more and more sinister dangers, the Spellbound novel is set to please most Blake’s fans and also earn him several new ones.

The novel starts with a big bang which means that the events appear to be at the crescendo from the beginning while the pace of most things keeps on going throughout. Whereas there are a few quieter moments, the novel’s plot doesn’t seem to slow down past the breakneck speed. Wrapped within this fast-moving plot are numerous interesting questions and mysteries that’ll leave the readers hanging on so as to figure out or find out the answers. Spellbound represents an adventure fantasy that’s filled with interesting characters, mystery and a very unique world which mixes well the fantasy cliché’s that so many people know and love as well. Spellbound also represents an improvement on the Spellwright. The book has got the similar loveable characters and a similar fun feel, but there is a certain level of maturity, growth and depth in Spellbound that actually makes it to fly high. Blake Charlton has certainly made his mark..

Blake Charlton is undoubtedly a great force to reckon with within the fantasy world. All the above books are just a clear proof that Blake deserves to be among the top fantasy. With all its mystery, fast paced action and such a very exceptional magical system, Spellbound deservedly earns a top place as being one of the very best books.