The Sacred Band – Book Tour and Giveaway
Where gods walk the earth and warriors defy fate.
The Sacred Band
Sacred Band Series Book 8
by Janet & Chris Morris
Genre: Epic Fantasy Adventure
The Sacred Band of Thebes lives on, a world away, in this mythic epic of love in war in ancient times.
In 338 BCE, during the Battle of Chaeronea that results in the massacre of the Sacred Band of Thebes, Tempus and his Stepson cavalry rescue twenty three pairs of Theban Sacred Banders, paired brothers and lovers, to fight on other days. These forty-six Thebans, whose bones will never lie in the mass grave that holds their two hundred and fifty-four brothers, join with the immortalized Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons, consummate ancient cavalry fighters, to make new lives in a faraway land and fight the battle of their dreams where gods walk the earth, ghosts take the field, and the angry Fates demand their due.
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This was the foray the Riddler intended, after all. When Niko had briefed Critias and Straton, they’d stared at him in disbelief. But they would implement his orders. He was the Riddler’s right-side partner; his word bound the Band like law while their commander lay abed.
Ignoring deeper wounds (his own, his seasoned fighters’) that needed tending, he called the three youngest Stepsons out of their barracks and told them they were lucky to be alive, dressing them down savagely for not holding steady in the ranks. Their eyes, wide and shocky; their faces, cut and bruised; their hands, trembling, told him they’d learned something on the Chaeronean battleplain. What they’d learned was nowhere near enough. These three Bandaran-trained youths were his responsibility; he couldn’t leave them to their own devices. He’d sponsored them, first on Bandara with the secular adepts, and now in Tempus’s Sacred Band.
So he got his best horse and he drilled the trainees on the practice field until the sun set, and had the veteran, Gayle, take over from him then. “All night long,” he told his broad and sturdy Stepson, once a 3rd Commando fighter and among his most studied masters of the crueler arts. “Until they drop in their tracks. And tomorrow, all day long. I want them disciplined.”
And he left, wishing he could find something to hack to pieces.
Don’t miss the rest of the Sacred Band Series!
The Sacred Band of Stepsons series is Homeric and heroic fiction following the exploits of an ancient cavalry unit modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes. Deftly mixing history, myth, and fantasy, Morris’ Sacred Band of Stepsons live and die in a world where gods are real and magic works — sometimes.
Morris’ accursed cavalry commander, Tempus, first appeared Sacred Band first appeared in the million-selling Thieves’ world shared-universe in 1981. Subsequently, Janet Morris, first alone and subsequently with her husband Chris Morris, take the Sacred Band into their own series of novels, set in the fourth century BCE. Passionate, gritty, lyrical prose and unforgettable characters make this series. Perseid Press Sacred Band novels includes the “Author’s Cut” of the Beyond Sanctuary Trilogy and Tempus, as well as the epic novel The Sacred Band, and The Fish the Fighters and the Song-girl.
Find them at Perseid Press
Best selling author Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and published more than 30 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. Most of her fiction work was in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she also wrote historical and other novels. Morris either wrote, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.
Christopher Crosby Morris (born 1946) is an American author of fiction and non-fiction, as well as a lyricist, musical composer, and singer-songwriter. He is married to author Janet Morris. He is a defense policy and strategy analyst and a principal in M2 Technologies, Inc. He writes primarily as Chris Morris, but occasionally uses pseudonyms.
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What is something unique/quirky about you?
We breed Morgan horses. We consult with Morgan breeders to help them choose breeding combinations to achieve a desired result.
We are also song writers; Janet plays bass guitar and Chris sings and plays guitar. We have an album on MCA records. Look for Christopher Crosby Morris on Soundcloud or N1M.com
Can you, for those who don’t know you already, tell something about yourself and how you became an author?
Janet wrote her first book in 1975 and Chris was the first one to read and comment on it. Their marriage survived. A routine emerged where Chris would read aloud all the new drafts and we would make edits on the spot. After a few books Chris’ ideas became frequent enough that we agreed he should have credit for writing, whereas before we had kept separate Janet’s storytelling and Chris’ songwriting. The rest, as they say is history.
Who is your hero and why?
Heraclitus of Ephesus, a pre-socratic philosopher, whose Cosmic Fragments foreshadow our knowledge of reality and how to perceive it. Among his precepts is the statement that change alone is unchanging. We’ve worked Heraclitus’ fragments in here and there throughout our books.
Which of your novels can you imagine being made into a movie?
All of them. We write cinematically, our books are vivid adventures undertaken without knowing the destination. I, the Sun, The Sacred Band, Outpassage and M.E.D.U.S.A. are particularly suited to film. The Threshold Series is a feast of opportunities for today’s special effects creators.
What inspired you to write The Sacred Band?
We love horses, history and philosophy, so why not an ancient cavalry unit made up of paired fighters led by a centuries-old warrior sage with a god in his head? Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons are made from their moment which stretches across all of recorded history.
Who designed your book covers?
Most of our covers, including The Sacred Band are realized by Roy Mauritsen, a gifted graphic artist.
Advice to writers?
As for advice to writers, here is all we know: write the story you want to read. Start at the beginning, go to the end, and stop. Seriously. From start to finish you must inhabit the construct in a manner that makes the reader choose to continue; if you, as the writer, can’t feel what it’s like being there, your readers can’t either. So close your eyes, look at your feet where they are standing on the story’s ground; tell me what you see. Tell me what you hear. Ask at the end of each paragraph ‘what happens next?’. If you lose touch with it, wait until you’re back inside it. Tell the story that comes to you, and from you, to me.
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
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I like the cover art. Looks great. Sounds like an amazing story.
I am so adding this book to my must read list. The cover is amazing.
The book sounds very interesting. Love the cover!
love the cover, your books always have such amazing covers
Sounds like a good variation of the transplanted military trope.
What was the most surprising thing you learned during the writing process?
Sounds like a really good read.
What is your favorite space to do your writing?
Sounds like a great story.
This sounds like a great Epic Fantasy Adventure book. I like the cover.
It looks like a good read.
I like everything about this - genre title and cover!!
Thanks for the excerpt.