The Healing Glass - Age of Academicians I

by Maria Herring

“… a lot of action and tension. Hats off for introducing a plot point that left me with my mouth actually hanging open”

— Liz Williams, best-selling SFF author

Madness killed her mother. Now a plague is killing her father.

But no one believes that this scorned academic has found a way to stop this plague. A plague so virulent it’s eating through the entire city. 

Audra Academician lost the respect of her peers thanks to her radical theories. They call her mad. She hates that. And it means that no one believes her anymore. The evidence to cure the plague is an ancient journal written by a Mage - a race of people that have been extinct now for hundreds of years. Only Audra can decode the archaic language. And the cure is an ancient magical artefact, the Healing Glass, hidden in a lost corner of the land. She has to convince her peers she’s right, or the Glass will stay lost and everyone in the city will die. But when nightmarish visions start to haunt her, she fears that the same madness that claimed her mother is now coming for her. 

Now, not only the lives of the citizens consume her thoughts. She has to get the Healing Glass before her mother’s madness kills her too.

Available now on Kindle Unlimited!

Pages: 453 pages

Publication Date: 2019

Awakening Mages - Age of Academicians II

by Maria Herring

“…a brave and original novel with a cast of memorable characters.”

— Jaine Fenn, award-winning SFF author

Audra left Kingston City to save it from the plague. What she brings back is far worse: herself.
For uncounted Ages, all-powerful, immortal Mages imprisoned unwitting humans in an entire country to play out their sacrificial Games. Audra Academician, in her quest to save the city, discovered the Healing Glass never existed. She discovered the truth about the Mages.
She discovered the truth about herself. She’s not human. She’s one of them.

Now the Mages must strike back and find Audra before their blood-thirsty secret is exposed. They devise a deadly race, and one of the contestants is unpredictable Sabina, a Mage of low rank and filthy mouth. She wants to win the race, sure.
But not to save Magekind.
She has other plans.

Awakening Mages is the second book in the epic Age of Academicians fantasy series.

Available now on Kindle Unlimited!

Pages: 348 pages

Publication Date: 2020

Blood Uprising - Age of Academicians III

by Maria Herring

"...a very entertaining if grisly read. Your characteristic blend of humour, horror and chaos." — Liz Williams, best-selling SF/F author

Sab just wanted someone to kill her. Instead, she has to save a city.

New Borns are meant to be scary human monsters that only exist in Mage lore. But low-born Mage Sabina is now working with two of them: Audra and Squirrel. Two very different humans, both born with the ability to kill Mages. Living in the same city, no less. What are the odds...?

First thing Sab notices about the human city? It's not only Mages who enjoy killing for power.

Second thing she notices? It's just as rotten as the Mage one she left behind.

So here's the deal: Sab uses her magic to help fix the human city. Then the New Borns help Sab take down the corrupt Patriarch of hers.

But no-one reckoned with Audra's growing blood-lust...

While Sab struggles with Audra's spiralling instability, Squirrel discover the truth about their New Born powers:

It's in their blood. And it's always hungry.

Blood Uprising in the third book in Maria Herring's Age of Academicians epic fantasy series. For those who like their fantasy dark, bloody and brutal. Get this book to continue the epic series today.

Available now on Kindle Unlimited!

Pages: 384 pages

Publication Date: 2022

Fairer Tales - The forgotten voices of fairy tales

by Maria Herring & Catherine Herring

Happily ever after is a lie — when someone else tells your story.

Fall into the dark, ancient world of fairy tales, but this time listen to the other voices. Not the princess waiting for a hero to come. Not the prince on his brave journey. Not the king we’re told is wise.

Listen to the wolves.

Listen to the ugly sisters.

Listen to the witches.

They whisper the untold tales behind the fairy tales we grew up with.

Fairer Tales is the first in a series exploring the unheard voices of ancient folklore and fairy tales, told with a compelling mix of prose, poetry and plays. Read them, and change how you see these once-harmless tales forever after.

Available now on Kindle Unlimited!

Pages: 303 pages

Publication Date: 2019

Legacy of A Warrior Queen

by Maria Herring

The Roman conquest of Britain is shattered in 60 C.E. by Boudica, a mother, a warrior and a rebel queen, who once united the tribes against a common enemy.

Now, three hundred years later, the prolonged Iron Age in Northern Europe sees the British Isles dominated by women, for these superstitious tribes believe now that only the Mother-Warrior-Queen trinity can safeguard them against any foreign foe. Women are deified; men are little more than slaves. But Arawn, slave-son of a salt merchant, believes that men have worth. When he tries to save a Pictish slave boy from sacrificial death, he accidentally murders his sister and her Druid. Having no other choice but to flee, he embarks on a journey from his British homeland across Gaul and on to Rome, seeking out the powerful priests of the new one true god, who holds men above women.

He can escape the British warrior-women hunting him, but he can't escape is own demons, for the journey is long and his bitterness towards women is strong...

Price: £8.95

Pages: 420 pages

Publication Date: 2014