Alec Hutson Books In Order

Publication Order of Empire of Flame & Fang Books

Publication Order of The Raveling Books

Publication Order of The Sharded Few Books

Publication Order of Swords and Saints Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Alec Hutson
Alec Hutson grew up in a bookstore and a geodesic dome, and lives in Shanghai, China.

Alec worked as a teacher at an international school in Shanghai. “The Crimson Queen” was his first novel, as he didn’t even have others moldering away in drawers anywhere, and he wrote it during weekends and summer vacations over several years. He quickly felt the pressure to finish the sequel, and it gave him just a tiny taste of the pressure greats like Lynch, Martin, and Rothfuss have to feel knowing they must satisfy readers that are waiting on the next one.

The book’s success totally surprised him. Once the school year ended and his contract was up (he wouldn’t leave his students in the middle of a year) he quit his job and began writing full time. His lifestyle is easy to afford in China, and he’s excited to devote all of his focus and energy to writing fantasy novels.

“The Crimson Queen” is the first novel in the “Raveling” series and was released in 2016. The world fell into twilight long ago, once the great empires of old consumed one another in sorcerous cataclysms. The Star Towers in the south fell, having been swallowed by the sea, as the black glaciers descended upon the northern holdfasts, entombing the cities of Min-Ceruth in sorcery and ice. Then from the ancient empire of Menekar the paladins of Ama arrived, which put every surviving sorcerer to the sword and cleansed their taint from the land for the radiant glory of their lord.

The pulse of magic started to slow, fading like the heartbeat of a dying man. However after a thousand years it’s started to quicken again. In a tiny fishing village, this boy with odd powers comes of age.

One young queen rises in the west, and fans the long smoldering embers of magic into a blaze yet again. Something of great importance gets stolen (or freed) from the mysterious Empire of Swords and Flowers. And the immortals that survived the ancient cataclysms bestir themselves, casting around for why this world is changing suddenly.

“The Crimson Queen” won the Ink and Insights Competition—Judges Favorite in 2016, it was the Readers’ Favorite Award for Epic Fantasy in 2017, and it took 2nd in the 2017 SPFBO. It was also the #1 Amazon Bestseller in Epic Fantasy.

Each of these characters are engaging, whether they’re heroes or villains, or just misguided people, they are fully formed personas that act and behave with agendas of their own in mind. This is one fantasy debut which will get the reader rooting for its lead characters, enjoying the mysteries of the plot, and eager for the sequel.

“The Cleansing Flame” is the first novel in the “Swords and Saints” series and was released in 2020. A key which opens the passages between the worlds, and a sword of green glass.

The nameless warrior has nothing else. No armor, no allies, and not even the memory about how he came to be trapped inside of this dying land, being pursued by the monstrous Shriven across a red waste.

All hope is not lost, however. There are other survivors amidst all of this desolation, holding clues as to where he’s come from and what he has to do: Amara, who is a fiery and beautiful Red Sword of her tribe, is obsessed with destroying the demons that plague her people. And Valyra, who is a young sorceress that is able to weave the broken threads of this reality into something that is whole once more.

Together they’ll attempt to resist the evil which stalks the wastes. However this world is just one among many, and in order to unravel his mysteries this warrior has to find doorways that’ll allow him to stride between the stars and pass into even odder lands than these.

“The Shadows of Dust” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2020. The Streams bind together all of the vast reaches of the stellar tributary, plied by the brave streamsurfers and their telepathic starbeasts. Some of these adventurers are rogues, while some are rogues. And some only want to come back from the void with their minds and bodies unbroken.

Kerin thon Talisien is the heir to a legendary name. When he was just a young boy, his grandpa swooped on down from the stars and rescued him out of the slums of his homeworld. However with the death of the infamous old streamsurfer, Kerin and his crew have now fallen on hard times, being exiled out of the Starfarers Guild and forced to take on riskier contracts in the shadowy margins of the stellar tributary.

One odd encounter in a glimmer den offers up the chance at glory and redemption, however the stakes are rather high, with the fate of the Known possibly hanging in the balance.

“The Umbral Storm” is the first novel in the “Sharded Few” series and was released in 2022. One thousand years ago the Heart of the World got shattered, and its fragments scattered clear across the lands. In the chaos which followed, martial orders arose to gather the shards back up, for it was found that great powers were granted when these pieces became bonded to the flesh of the chosen. Warriors are the Sharded Few, having been imbued with the divine energies which used to course through Heart, and driven to absorb enough fragments to claim godhood.

Deryn has known nothing in his life but suffering. Orphaned at the edge of the realms, indentured to this cruel slaver, he can see very little chance of escaping from his circumstances. However elsewhere in the world there are ancient powers stirring, these new alliances which threaten the peace of the old order, and in the cataclysms which are coming a slave is going to become a hero.

Alec beautifully paints this story with well selected words descriptively arced across the pages of this newest epic of his. Derwyn’s journey, both geographically and internally as a maturing and evolving character, keeps you turning the pages in order to share it with him.