Ghorlund: Part One of the Wizard's Sign (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781662930645)

What does it mean to be a human being, whose life is expected to matter?

Ghorlund begins as a hero tale. A fourteen year old farm boy with the odd, but prophetic, name sign, Hairpin, is called away from his sheltered, though sometimes bullied, existence to share an extraordinary quest to save the World of Things. The ancient Omen of the Wizard Elderon foretells the one who will serve as agent of The Tenth Wizard, now soon to appear.

But, who? The Omen is unclear. Many seek that answer, and Cloghammer, the parvis master himself, commands Hairpin to come to the parvis in the capital city, Ghorlund. Hinge, Hairpin's widowed father accompanies him to the vast walled city where a nameless chamberlain and the omnipresent artificial intelligence called the Ordiner, share benevolent rule over the realm.

However, instead of magic and glory as Hairpin hoped, the quest rapidly plunges him into a growing fear of powerful forces seeking to keep The Omen from fulfillment. Hairpin and his new companions, Curtain and Wheel, begin to uncover the faint outlines of a terrible, dark mystery. From the origins of the World of Things, in The Silent Year, some unimaginable horror is still weaving threads of fear and violence. Challenging him with both his first love and life threatening danger, the Ghorlund quest leads Hairpin to discover, not magic, but himself. Still, the mysterious, deep dread lurking at the heart of the realms, that calls The Tenth Wizard into being, has claimed him and, beyond his control, begins unfolding in The Novice, part two of The Wizard's Sign trilogy. The startling resolution emerges in part three, The Well of Voices.