First Chapter: Tales of the Ocean City: Battle in the Sky Book 1 by Christopher Kaufman

 

Title: Tales of the Ocean City: Battle in the Sky (Book 1)

Author: Christopher Kaufman

Publisher: Three Dashes Publications

Genre: Classic Epic Fantasy

A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past – THE VORM.

The main characters are a young man named Harl’ut and his lifelong companion Vispushin – who is a perIanth, a kind of telepathic pegasus. Join them on this epic adventure as they lead a group of young warriors into the heart of the Vorm Hive.

Book One: Battle In The Sky is the first of five books which comprise the opening series of this epic tale. Here, Harl’ut and Vispushin and The Princess Bryn’lynn, engage in desperate battle over the southern plain with savage Vorm warriors. You will be uplifted by the passionate and thrilling conclusion of the first installment of this fantasy adventure. 

In Book Two: Descent Into The Abyss, Harl’ut recovers from his harrowing adventure from Book One: Battle In The Sky. He walks through the streets of The Ocean City, visits the Sculpture Garden and his friend, Elá, the bard, and engages in exciting training games with warrior/mentor, Calanctus. Then the story takes you down the throat of the vast volcano, Pla’than’taa, once worshipped as a god, where Harl’ut enacts a deadly initiation ritual, confronts the barbaric past of his people and battles a terrifying monster. 

Pick up your copies at https://kaufmantales.com/. 

FIRST CHAPTER:

All went Dark.
Zhii’gla’s back convulsed. Vispushin’s alarm rang through his mind and into Bryn’lynn’s. Light blinded
her as her eyes flashed open. She lithely spun about, standing now upon the stallion’s haunches, facing her enemies. Zhii’gla, with a violent swipe of his wings, spiraled backwards through the air, heading away
from the warned of danger.
They were dazed by some kind of psionic blast!
“What’s going on!?” she thought screamed.
Zhii’gla’s mental voice sounded dim, as if passing through a dense pall of white static.
“Not sure…Danger…We must…Escape.”

The glare cleared from her eyes. Bryn’lynn stared at what looked like dark fistfuls of bloody ink tossed
against the sky, as if her half-imagined cloud shapes had mixed with nightmare and come to life.
Three massive pegusi gashed the air where she and Zhii’gla had just been, savage metallic scythes curved
from churning hooves. Monstrous warriors loomedon their backs as fiery light frothed about massive
spikes and horns which sprouted from the warrior’s heads and bodies at riotous angles. They swerved
and pursued Bryn’lynn and Zhii’gla like a violently cresting wave.
“Get us out of here!” Bryn’lynn cried aloud.
“I’m…trying…” Zhii’gla mentally gasped.

Zhii’gla leveled off close above the trees, flying swiftly. Bryn’lynn felt the mighty haunches rolling be-
neath her. She took a breath. Warrior pride suddenly bloomed in the young Princess’s heart. Cold rage
displaced fear.

She reached down and whisked from its scabbard the sword which hung at Zhii’gla’s shoulder. A hilt shaped like the curved wings of a flying perianth protected her slender hand.

Red veins in the blue-grey blade made brave arcs of colored light as she brandished the weapon aloft! She uttered her piercing battle cry…
“Kay’yaaaaaa…….”

Even as the powerful sound echoed in the hills just below, the enemy arose as one in their saddles and
three arms jerked suddenly forward.
Bryn’lynn held the flat of her sword outward and braced it with her other hand as two heavy war clubs
exploded against her guard. One glanced painfully against her shoulder. A third more massive and
heavy weapon hit her sword and drove it flat against her forehead.
She fell to one knee, panting for breath.

Christopher Kaufman is an author, composer, presenter, illustrative artist and performer. He started imaginative fantasy books with illustrative art at the age of nine. During high school years he found music and attended The New Orleans Center for The Creative Arts and went on to major in music composition in college. He finished his schooling – earning his DMA in music composition at Cornell University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize Winning composers who prize his abilities as a composer.

Christopher is the type of person who needs imaginative fantasy scenarios to get to sleep. Therefore, he emerged from Cornell, not only with his degrees in music, but with the full event structure for his classic epic fantasy series Tales Of The Ocean City in his mind.

He began writing the story down in the early 2000’s, but it did not really come to life until he developed his home music ‘laboratory’ and started creating the music and text at the same time. Thus books one and two of TOC came about simultaneously as both graphically illustrated pages and effulgent audio albums filled with cinematic epic symphonic music.

They exist now as physical books and audio albums (that go together) and the new Video Book version.  He performs live tours with the music pouring through speakers, live narration and the colorful pages streaming on screen – a true immersive multi-media experience.

He also maintains his career as a composer for the concert stage with a full body of work, from solo works thru orchestral. He specializes as well in ‘environmental works’ which feature soundscapes crafted from hundreds of natural sounds, live musicians (from soloists, chamber groups and to full orchestra), videos filled with both natural and artistic images and readings from the works of John Muir and others.

His home page is – soundartus.com. 

His author page is talesoftheoceancity.com.

His you-tube channel is SOUNDARTUS.

Visit him at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/talesoftheoceancity.

Christopher believes in the transformative power of imagination.

“Live with imagination!”