Books by Amanda Ryan
Welcome to Aren
A Land Ruled by Magic & Swords
The Dynasty Saga came about out of my general fangirl love of all things fantasy. Aren evolved from multiple influences – film, books, music, etc. I can distinctly recall being bowled over by the cinematography of the movie 300 and thinking, “…that. That’s what I have in my head.” A few years later the video game series Assassin’s Creed came along, and completely rocked my world.
The Dynasty Series novels are all stand-alone stories.
Keeper is set in the Early Dynasty of Aren’s history. Reign is a future dynasty.
I began writing Reign in 2006. It was called something else at the time and didn’t resemble anything close to what it currently is now (in my head…I’ll get to that in a minute). I got swept up with the idea of assassins, and thus my hero Ilyas san Merin was born. But Ilyas, being the stubborn ass that he is, didn’t fit in Reign. So I gave him his own story, and thus, Keeper came to life. Ilyas and Amalia’s story ended up getting wrapped up first, which made sense because it’s set long before the occurrences of Reign. My characters in Reign were put aside as I tweaked Keeper, and the world of Aren expanded and developed in a really wonderful way I never anticipated.
Soon, we’ll finally have Anissa, Jaelon, and Colwyn’s stories in Reign!
The Dynasty Saga
Amalia has managed to successfully maintain her Keeper ability as a secret while living amid a lecherous lord. But her luck has run out. In exchange for asylum, Lia works side-by-side with the notorious assassin and Right Hand to the Royal, Ilyas san Merin, in order to track down three treacherous Lords that have stolen a powerful, ancient magical manuscript. But when their adventure takes a dangerous turn, Lia is forced to made a decision that will forever alter not simply her own future, but the future of Aren as well.
Prince Jaelon and his half brother, Commander Colwyn, seek the help of Anissa of Kyier, a notorious Tribal leader of Aren, to combat the rising violence of marauding Malians from the east. Their uneasy alliance is quickly put to the test when insidious magic begins wrecking havoc among their ranks, and the reluctant allies start to realize their way of life is in more danger than they realized.