Legacy Of The Stone Harp Books In Order

Publication Order of Legacy of the Stone Harp Books

Legacy of the Stone Harp is a series of epic fantasy novels produced by the collaborative efforts of Mark Sebanc and James Anderson. The books explore the journey of a hero who has been charged with saving the world.

+The Story
Even though the Legacy of the Stone Harp series is commonly associated with James G. Anderson, the books were the result of a collaborative effort and they generated mixed reviews when they were first published.

‘The Stoneholding’, the first novel in the series, kicked things off by taking readers to a world called Ahn Norvys. A villain called Ferabek had arisen to a place of power and then proceeded to execute a plan that would bring Ahn Norvys under his rule.

The Legacy of the Stone Harp series has been compared to the Lord of the Rings on numerous occasions. The authors have themselves admitted that their goal was to produce a series of books that would mirror J.R.R Tolkien’s approach to storytelling.

And most fans of this series will tell you that Anderson and Sebanc succeeded in their efforts. The Legacy of the Stone Harp is high fantasy. The world that the readers are transported to is completely alien.

Terms like ‘the Great Harmony of Ardiel’ and ‘the Secret Fire’ are commonplace. The world of Ahn Norvys is fully realized. Sebanc and Anderson went to great lengths to bring to life a wholly unique culture, language, and people. Every detail of Ahn Norvys is painstakingly explored, making it feel like a real place that could exist in some unexplored corner of Earth.

According to Ahn Norvys lore, the world was a pretty dangerous place before Ardiel rose to power. Known for being the first High King, Ardiel changed everything when he created the Talamadh, a harp that bound heaven to earth and brought about an era of unrivaled peace, harmony, and prosperity.

The people of Ahn Norvys lived a simple and uninterrupted existence, free from conflicts between good and evil. And the strength of Ardiel’s reign was such that his ideals persisted even after his passing.

People thought the High King’s workings would continue to protect Ahn Norvys forever. But eventually the bindings created by his harp began to fail and the aspects that connected the heavens and the earth faded.

By the time the events of ‘The Stoneholding’ roll around, the time of peace and harmony is approaching an end. Society has begun to collapse under the weight of its people’s moral and spiritual decade.

Chaos has arisen in the periphery, with dictators and tyrants slowly but surely gaining a foothold. In short, the power of evil is growing and it will take an even stronger manifestation of good to keep it in check.
Things take an especially dark turn when Ardiel’s harp is stolen. This is at a time when the heir to the throne has also disappeared. With no immediate source of trustworthy leadership, Ahn Norvys quickly descends into instability.

Kal Wright is just a young man of simple understanding enjoying a pastoral existence. He is drawn into the larger conflict when the antagonists show an unhealthy interest in him. Kal learns that there is more to his destiny than meets the eye and that his actions could determine the future of Ahn Norvys.

The Legacy of the Stone Harp series isn’t particularly original. Kal Wright, for instance, fits the mold of almost every hero that the epic fantasy genre has ever produced. He is the simple farm boy that so many authors love to write about who doesn’t expect much from life.

But then he is suddenly thrust into war. He must fight, protect the innocent and possibly even take lives, but he doesn’t really know why. Yet that uncertainty does not stop him from rising up to meet the challenge of his position.

And as the series progresses and as Kal grows in physical strength and confidence, he slowly but surely comes to realize that he was never really just an ordinary farm boy. Rather, there is more to his birth than meets the eye, and if he can just keep searching for answers, he will realize that he was always special.

The Stone Harp novels are most commonly praised for their great World building. However, this same strength tends to also manifest as a weakness for critics of the series who think that the authors are too verbose, spending way too much time exploring details that build their world but which do nothing to push the story forward.

+The Authors
Mark Sebanc was an editor and a translator before he went into fiction writing. A former student of the University of Toronto from where he got his degree and Masters in Classics, Mark believes that his best work has been done in collaboration with James G. Anderson.

A former student of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Anderson is a poet and a teacher, this on top of being a musician. Even though the Stone Harp novels were based on an idea for a story that Mark Sebanc created years earlier, the novels that were eventually published were the result of an in-depth collaborative effort.

+The Stoneholding
Prince Starigan has disappeared. And in the absence of the heir to the throne, Ahn Norvys has fallen into chaos, its power having been corrupted by a cabal.

The Evil Ferabek has tried and failed to overcome the ancient community of the Stoneholding. It is here that the High Bard lives, keeping a special harp called the Talamadh safe.

When Prince Starigan disappears, the attack that Ferabak launches against the small community is suddenly so fierce that he overcomes their defenses and burns it to the ground.

Kal is a young man whose pastoral life is upended when he learns of the role he must play in a grand conflict.

+Darkling Fields of Arvon
Kal Wright is the new High Bard. With the Stoneholding now destroyed, he must find Prince Starigan and make the world right again. The task won’t be easy, not when the evil Ferabek has the harp that binds heaven and earth.

It will take all the strength Kal and his friends can muster to face the dangers of Arvon, defeat Ferabek’s machinations and rekindle the Sacred Fire.