Talismans

Talismans is the winner of the Literary Titan Silver Book Award.
Ross Cambridge, a young artificer, was arrow-shot and left for dead, by a sorcerer from the cold southern lands who quested north for a long-lost artifact.

Although helpless to stop Salena, his betrothed, from being dragged away and Bound to the sorcerer, Ross held to a glimmer of hope. What could be done, could be undone.

Legend and the law said only death could free the sorcerously Bound, but Ross refused to relinquish the bright spark of his belief even though learning the sorcerous arts came at a high price: exile and enslavement, or death. But if he could learn enough to save his beloved, he could release the land from the bloody nightmare that dealing with the Bound presented.

The Quathiels, ancient elemental beings, had a plan. Steps were laid before Ross's feet and the cadence set. To save the woman he loved, Ross must learn this new dance-and risk becoming the very thing the world feared.

----------------------------------------

Talismans is the winner of the Literary Titan Silver Book Award: "If you like your epic fantasy, secondary-world fantasy, magic-system fantasy, political intrigue, and military fantasy with a vein of ecological myth, this is for you, especially if you enjoy protagonists who win by craft and stamina rather than destiny. Readers who vibe with Brandon Sanderson's engineered magic or Robert Jordan's multi-POV sprawl will recognize the pleasure here, though Miller's tone is earthier, more mud, less marble."