Publication day is finally here! In Victrix, the third novel in the Togas, Daggers, and Magic series is finally available!

🎉🥂🎇🙌🎉🎆

It’s been a very long journey, but the novel has already received some AMAZING endorsements!

Want to know more? Keep reading! Can’t wait? Then:

Grab your copy here on Amazon, or treat yourself to your very own signed and dedicated paperback directly!

The Journey

This book has been a while in the making — over 5 years! I had the first draft written and out to the first alpha readers by end of 2019, was chugging along nicely writing another novel, and then… And then 2020 hit, life went crazy, and free time evaporated.

By the time lockdowns ended I had changed jobs, and started to tentatively write again. Only for 2021 to see the second wave of crazy. By the time that ended, we were busy with kids’ schools, demanding workplaces, and planning an interstate move. It took until the middle of 2023 till I gave up on things ever settling down and just resumed editing whenever I could.

On the bright side, having some distance from the work gave me more space to craft a better story. I could more easily murder my literary darlings — both linguistic and narrative — for a story that my early readers have claimed is my best yet.

Speaking of whom, I — and you, my gentle reader — should thank my wife, kids, cats, dog, Tasmanian sunsets, a metric tonne of birds by volume (of noise), and the occasional echidna for helping me build character through adversity and power on writing through the distractions. A special shout-out goes out to the lock on my study door.

The coup

One of my “evil genius” marketing plans (OK, “slightly maladjusted curmudgeon” might be better) was to get an A-lister SF&F author to write the introduction. It took a while to set up — but was totally worth it!

Harry Turtledove, the grandmaster of alternate history, winner of the Sidewise Award for Alternate History (as well as Hugo, Nebula, and Prometheus awards), and a PhD specialising in Roman and Byzantine history, had this to say about In Victrix:

Assaph Mehr’s Egretia is Rome as the Romans themselves imagined it to be. Magic really works. Curses curse, love philtres create love, oracles do predict the future, and on and on. The genuine Romans enacted laws against magic not because they thought it was a fraud but because they thought it wasn’t, and feared what it would do if widely practiced.

Throw in the late Republic’s baroque and richly corrupt electoral system, a kidnapping or two, love affairs, bad guys, some good guys who are just about as bad as the baddies, and a coctus (hardboiled, to you) detective who knows all the angles and how to play them as well as any master of geometry, and you’ve got quite a book. I enjoyed it a lot. I expect you will, too

I’m over the moon with a pride! 🥰😲🥰 My fantasy version of Roman life has so far been reviewed — and approved! — by at least three history PhD’s. Even the magic of the Romans in the series matches the best literature about it!

I’ve reproduced Harry’s introduction in full on my newsletter, setting the (historical) scene for the major themes in the novel.

If you want a fresh perspective, I let Felix interview Borax — his bodyguard, and an ex-gladiator himself — on The Protagonist Speaks. Check it out here, it has some… unique perspective of Felix’s latest adventures! 😉🏺

So what are you waiting for? In Victrix is now available through Amazon in both Kindle and paperback, and other retailers should have the paperback available as well (just ask them to order in if you don’t see it on the shelves!)

Grab your copy here on Amazon, or treat yourself to your very own signed and dedicated paperback directly!