Two remarkable women are inextricably linked by a power far greater than anything Europe has ever seen ➱Storm Surge a Historical Fiction Adventure by Stephen A. Reger book tour with Rafflecopter
Two remarkable women are inextricably linked by a power far greater than anything Europe has ever seen.
Storm Surge
The Stormsong Trilogy Book 2
by Stephen A. Reger
Genre: Historical Fiction Adventure
As the Thirty Years’ War enters its second year, Bohemian Protestants continue their rebellion against the Catholic Hapsburg dynasty which has ruled the German states with an iron fist for more than three hundred years. Like the rest of Europe, this once great empire remains divided along multiple fault lines; and across Europe, various religious sects social classes, and nations continue to battle one another in a war of unprecedented scope and savagery.
Already caught up in this massive conflict are two very beautiful but very different women. Lady Atlantis Vanessa von Stormsong, the only child of a wealthy Catholic Archduke, has known a life of power and privilege; meanwhile, Sarlatova, a poor Protestant who lives among thieves and outlaws, knows practically nothing of her past. These two strangers seem to have nothing in common except for a strong faith in the same God.
But as their paths cross again and again, and as they try to navigate a world dominated by violent and powerful men, these two remarkable women begin to realize that they are inextricably linked by a power far greater than anything Europe has ever seen.
Stormfront
The Stormsong Trilogy Book 1
The year is 1618, and the Christian world stands, once again, on a knife’s edge. The once great Holy Roman Empire, like most of the rest of Europe, is divided along religious, political, and economic lines – pitting Catholics against Protestants, princes against monarchs, and the rich against the poor. And a war unlike anything Europe has ever seen is growing increasingly inevitable...
Destined to be caught up in the coming conflict are two very beautiful but very different women. Lady Atlantis Vanessa von Stormsong is the only child of a wealthy Catholic Archduke, while poor Šarlatová is a Protestant thief who knows practically nothing of her past. These two strangers share a strong faith in the same God, but their respective attempts to find peace in a world dominated by violent and powerful men will lead them straight into the abyss of a war that will tear Europe apart for the next thirty years.
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Author’s Note
Legend is often truer than history and
always more interesting.
-anonymous
Everything
you have ever been told about history is a lie. All of the history that
you learned from
kindergarten to college has been a carefully crafted series of falsehoods and
fabrications, all
designed to keep you from knowing
the truth. I should know. For more than three decades, I was a
teacher of history (American, European, World), and during that time I was an
accomplice (before and during the fact) to a vast conspiracy to shield you from
the truth – and the truth is far different from what you thought you
knew. In fact, the role of the spiritual, supernatural, and (dare I say)
magical has always been far more prevalent in and pivotal to history than you
have ever been taught.
But I
am retired now, and I intend to use whatever time I have left on this mortal
coil we call Earth trying to destroy the intricately woven web of deceit that I
helped build. I’m going to peel back the curtain, as it were, and reveal
to you the far more interesting, infinitely more complex and chaotic, and (at
times) terrifying truth about who we are and how we got here.
I
begin with the strange but true tale of what really happened in the Holy Roman
Empire during the Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century. Prepare to
be illuminated and incensed that this was all kept from you for so long.
Or, perhaps, it would be better
to use this.
Prologue
Between
1154 and 1184, eager to restore the Holy Roman Empire to the position it had
once occupied under Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa (also known as Frederick
I) launched six different campaigns into Italy. History has recorded that
those campaigns, combined with his participation in the Third Crusade
(1189-1192), were Barbarossa’s attempts to expand the size and influence of the
Holy Roman Empire, reconquer the Holy Land following Sultan Saladin’s capture
of Jerusalem in 1187, and restore law and order to the various and disorganized
German states. In reality, however, it was neither land nor riches nor
holy relics that Barbarossa sought. In reality, he had come to the
conclusion that, hidden within Europe and the Middle East, were scores of
“devils and deviants” – practitioners of the dark arts.
Shortly
after he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Adrian IV on June 18, 1155,
Barbarossa, while still in Rome for the coronation, summoned to Saint Peter’s
Basilica all of the patriarchs of an incredibly powerful (and incredibly
secretive) German family – the Stormsongs. At that place and time,
Barbarossa granted the Stormsongs hereditary title to an extremely powerful
order that would serve as his personal army. The Stormsongs would be rich
beyond the dreams of avarice, but they would also be indebted to serve as
Barbarossa’s “truest protectors of the faith and empire.”
And so, it
began. For more than 460 years, the Stormsongs faithfully, and quite
violently, defended the Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Empire, and the German
monarchy against all enemies (foreign and domestic, real and perceived).
But little did Barbarossa know that the same practitioners of the dark arts the
Stormsongs were meant to shield his empire from were, in fact, alive and well
within the Stormsong family. And by the dawn of the seventeenth century,
the order of Stormsongs had grown both darker and more powerful, while the Holy
Roman Empire they allegedly still served found itself surrounded by powerful
enemies – and on the brink of collapse.
After teaching AMERICAN, WORLD, and EUROPEAN history for thirty years, Stephen A. Reger is spending his retirement writing about what the history textbooks leave out. Stormfront is his debut novel. He currently teaches American Literature in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he resides with his wife, Amy, and his two sons, Jacob and Caleb.
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I enjoyed the post. Sounds like a good story.
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