The Tides of Avarice

The Tides of Avarice: A Sagaria Legend (Fantasy)

By John Dahlgren

Price $14.95

EDM www.edmbooks.com.sg

ISBN #978-9814260534

460 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“A Fantastical Swashbuckling Fantasy Adventure!”

Young Sylvester Lemmington is a mild mannered librarian and archivist in the peaceful land of Foxglove, where the citizens only worry is the ruthless town mayor. Then one night, the lemming encounters a dying pirate on the shore of the Great Wet Without End. The pirate, a mean-looking ferret named Levantes, leaves a portion of a map in the hands of the young Sylvester. It was a map that would lead the lad and his loved one, Viola on a dangerous and deadly mission across the ocean aboard a pirate ship with the worst rogues to ever fly the Jolly Roger skull and crossbones. At the end of the journey no one would ever be the same again.

The world of Sagaria is populated with intelligent animals, and the pirate crew is a mixed bag of ferrets, skunks, weasels, rats, mongoose, and other assorted vicious creatures, and led by the notorious fox, Cap’n Rustbane, a murdering rascal who will stop at nothing to get the three portions of the map in his own possession.

Children from nine to ninety-nine will love this wonderful fantasy yarn as it unravels over this huge volume. Every kid whoever fought imaginary pirates on the bank of some muddy river bottom will be pulled into the tale as he fights along side Sylvester to protect the virtue of his love, Viola and her mother.

Tom Johnson

Echoes Magazine

JOHN DAHLGREN ADAPTS CLASSICAL FANTASY STORYTELLING FOR THE 21^ST CENTURY

Swedish award-winning author heads to U.S. for first ever book tour overseas

December 2012 – A librarian lemming took readers on a nautical pirate’s adventure in The Tides of Avarice, landing in a fantasy world set three hundred years earlier in John Dahlgren’s second young adult novel Sagaria. The Swedish author travels over seas himself for his first U.S. book tour in winter 2013.

As a trained psychologist, it’s no surprise most of the high praise Dahlgren has received for his writing focuses on the three-dimensional characters he’s created. Readers are particularly entranced by Tides villain Cap’n Rustbane’s constant mood shifts as a highly intelligent yet brutal man suffering from schizophrenia.

“Each character is unique and I’ve tried to get into their heads – definitely a work related hazard, being a psychologist – to see how each and every one of them would react when facing an unexpected situation,” Dahlgren said. “They also learn a lot about themselves during their adventures together.”

Having grown up close to the vast and untamed landscapes of Scandinavia, Dahlgren was influenced from an early age by the Nordic sagas and mythologies. The enchanting environment is evident in his young adult tales that re-introduce the Victorian writing style and a touch of cozy fairytale surroundings.

Dahlgren also spent time researching the books at natural history museums to compare animal sizes and traits, in Stockholm to study a well-preserved ship from the 17^th century, and all throughout the caves, mountains and castles of Switzerland.

“Even when writing fiction and fantasy, things have to make at least some real sense. Otherwise, the story collapses and the reader’s interest lost,” Dahglren explains. “As Mark Twain once said, ‘The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense.’”

Tides became a Fantasy Fiction finalist in the International Book Awards and Silver Medal winner in Fantasy Fiction from ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards. The magazine said the debut was “as cheering and as engaging a swashbuckling yarn as any a pirate lover could imagine.” Readers were just as pleased with Dahlgren’s second novel Sagaria, which re-releases as a three-part eBook series in January 2013.

Hugo and World Fantasy award-winning author John Grant describes Dahlgren as “constantly inventive,” and Bestsellersworld.com calls him “a masterful storyteller.” Lifestyle Magazine said Tides is “reminiscent of a furry version of Pirates of the Caribbean. The characters are endearing and the story has both depth and soul.” Book blogger Ray Mears said she found herself “outflanked” by Dahlgren, thinking she knew where the story was going, “only to find it took a completely unexpected turn. That hasn’t happened for a while.           Buy it, read it, love it. Yarghhhhhh!”

Dahlgren studied creative and fiction writing at Oxford University. A member of the Swiss Psychologist Federation, he has also written nonfiction articles for numerous scientific journals and a Swedish magazine.