It’s getting hotter in here…. – Taylen Carver

The remains of Pompeii, Italy.I have a thing about volcanoes. Don’t know why. But of all the disaster movies and books that I’ve seen and read in my time, the ones featuring volcanoes get my thumbs-up and attention.

One of my favourite movies of all time is Dante’s Peak. There’s nothing that can beat the big finale sequence when they’re trying to outrun the deadly pyroclastic cloud.

I’ve also read a number of volcano disaster novels, and one that sticks in my memory is a fictional account of Vesuvius’ 79 CE eruption, which wiped out Pompeii and Heruclaneum, called simply Pompeii by Robert Harris.

So it was with great glee and joy that I got to include an erupting volcano in book 3 of the Magorian & Jones series, The Shield of Agrona.

Of course, I couldn’t talk about it much when the book was first released, because it was part of the finale.

But my goodness, I had fun blowing up half of Britain!

The only problem with that was that when it came to book 4, I had to deal with the fallout — literally, in this case, as the detritus and dust from a major volcanic eruption can linger in the atmosphere for years.

That put some interesting limitations on how I could tell the story. Plus I had all the on-going story issues to deal with, too.

The plotting for The Rivers Ran Red was far more challenging than any book in the series so far.

But today, it is finally released on all bookstores everywhere.

Magorian and Jones have one chance left to save the world, if only they can find a way to work together.

Michael Jones, MD, left Toledo months ago to avoid Jamie, the woman he loves but cannot have, for she is with his best friend, the world’s first modern wizard, Benjamin Magorian. Michael hides in Wales, burying himself in the work generated by a health system in crisis, as Britain deals with the fallout from multiple volcanic eruptions in Scotland…until Magorian finds him there.

They’re down to the wire in their efforts to save the fractured world of humans and Old Ones from Aurelius’ scheme to summon the old gods and avoid the destruction the gods would hail down upon every mortal, no matter what their race. They must find a way to permanently halt Aurelius, and Magorian thinks he might know how.

The only problem? Magorian brought Jamie with him…

The Rivers Ran Red is part of the urban fantasy series, Magorian & Jones, by Taylen Carver.

The Magorian & Jones series:
1.0: The Memory of Water
2.0: The Triumph of Felix
3.0: The Shield of Agrona
3.5: The Wizard Must Be Stopped
4.0: The Rivers Ran Red
5.0: The Divine and Deadly
…and more to come.