The Alchemy of Chaos

The Maradaine Saga continues as the Thorn of Maradaine returns! New threats come for him on the streets of Aventil and on the University campus. Veranix continues his fight against Fenmere, and draws the attention of greater forces with ill plans for the city of Maradaine. "Fantasy adventure readers, especially fans of spell-wielding students, will enjoy these lively characters and their high-energy story." - Publisher's Weekly Veranix Calbert is The Thorn: the street vigilante who became a legend to the people of Maradaine, especially the gangs that run the neighborhood of Aventil. The Thorn continues to harass Willem Fenmere, the drug kingpin of the Dentonhill neighborhood, determined to stop him and the effitte drug trade. It's also Exam Week at the University of Maradaine, where Veranix is a magic student. With his academic career-and future as a mage-riding on his performance, Veranix needs to devote himself entirely to studying and participating in a fellow student's thesis experiments. But with a series of dangerous magical pranks plaguing the campus, it becomes clear that there's someone with a vendetta against the university, and The Thorn may be the only one capable of stopping them. Between the prankster, a war brewing between the Aventil gangs, and the flamboyant assassins Fenmere has hired to kill him, Veranix may end up dead before the week is out.

Marshall Ryan Maresca is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, author of the Maradaine Saga: Four braided series set amid the bustling streets and crime-ridden districts of the exotic city called Maradaine, which includes The Thorn of Dentonhill, A Murder of Mages, The Holver Alley Crew and The Way of the Shield, as well as the dieselpunk fantasy, The Velocity of Revolution. He is also the co-host of the Hugo-nominated, Stabby-winning podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists, and has been a playwright, an actor, a delivery driver and an amateur chef. He lives in Austin, Texas with his family.