Forward The Mage by Eric Flint & Richard Roach (Includes Shipping to Canada or the U.S.)

Format: Hardcover, 464 pages

Publisher: Baen, 2002

ISBN: 0743435249

The youthful artist-swordsman Benvenuti Sfondrati-Piccolomini arrived in the city of Goimr just in time for disaster to strike. The evil sorcerer Zulkeh had driven the King of the realm insane, then fled from the city! So much for Benvenutis plans to become the Royal Artist. Injury was added to insult when Benvenuti was immediately arrested by the Secret Police. Then, after barely managing to escape the clutches of the authorities, he found himself embroiled with a revolutionary agitator and a gigantic madman. Things were not as they seemed. The wizard Zulkeh and his apprentice Shelyid were, in fact, guiltless. Zulkeh had been summoned to interpret the King of Goimrs mysterious dream, which the sorcerer came to realize foretold an impending catastrophe for civilization. Zulkeh and Shelyid had actually left Goimr to discover the really important implications of the dream, beyond the trifle of the dynastys destruction. Much to the artists dismay, his adventures and those of the sorcerer were hopelessly intertwined.