
The Cruelty of Magic
The Cruel Origins: Book I

Release Date: October 2024
Genre: Dark/Epic Fantasy
Trope: Chosen One/Prophecy
A warlord seeks the destruction of Runefall, and the end of magic, as a prophecy is met with doubt.
Kyra, a young woman capable of wielding rune magic, is called from her hidden city to a temple no one knows about. As Kyra wrestles with a prophecy, and wanting to save her city, a dwarven king leads his people to carve a new home for themselves but instead finds himself approaching divinity.
On the other side of the world, a dark sewer hosts a father and daughter who escaped a tyrannical attack. They now hide and attempt to summon a golem for protection but learn something about magic that might change the world.
Intricate stories and deep lies connect people from all across the land. The actions of one may very well condemn the lives of another, even if they never meet.
Such is the cruel way of the world and the unforgiving cost of magic.
The Cruelty of Love
The Cruel Origins: A Prequel

Release Date:
Genre: Dark/High Fantasy
As a foul darkness looms around the last, great kingdom of Dwaharim, two dwarves seek to love each other, to marry out of passion rather than need. Will a spear-maiden and the Prince of Dwaharim conquer their own culture with the threat surrounding them, or will love show its cruelty?
The Cruelty of Love is the story of Haffi and Laffiena, before the world fell down around them.
The Cruelty of Magic
The Cruel Origins: Special Edition

Release Date: October 2024
Genre: Dark/Epic Fantasy
Trope: Chosen One/Prophecy
A warlord seeks the destruction of Runefall, and the end of magic, as a prophecy is met with doubt.
Kyra, a young woman capable of wielding rune magic, is called from her hidden city to a temple no one knows about. As Kyra wrestles with a prophecy, and wanting to save her city, a dwarven king leads his people to carve a new home for themselves but instead finds himself approaching divinity.
On the other side of the world, a dark sewer hosts a father and daughter who escaped a tyrannical attack. They now hide and attempt to summon a golem for protection but learn something about magic that might change the world.
Intricate stories and deep lies connect people from all across the land. The actions of one may very well condemn the lives of another, even if they never meet.
Such is the cruel way of the world and the unforgiving cost of magic.
The Cruelty of Gods
The Cruel Origins: Book II

Release Date: August 2025
Genre: Dark/Epic Fantasy
Trope: Chosen One/Prophecy
A young woman of silver skin takes on a new identity, one born from death.
Following the descent of the gods of Kaiyara, the runic sorceress Kyra toils away carving runes into anywhere she can to learn the secrets necessary to save her friends. She hides from the world in a cavern with a magical spring, Turmin of Runefall—who is rapidly and uncontrollably aging—and a creature made of pure fire.
Rumors spread across the land of a growing army, one meant to resist the growing tyranny of gods and goddesses. Meanwhile, the former dwarven king Grunffi reckons with his mistakes, vowing to find the wife he abandoned on the mountainside with his maker beside him.
Varelia and Groff follow the warish commands of the Shackled Maiden to an underground city of necromancy, but something is strange, something is off. This city doesn’t seem to be what they were told, and now the summoner and her golem must reconcile the truth of all summoning magic and its connection to the world.
This war between gods and goddesses has one inevitable end—blood.

Meet Shawn Amick

Shawn Amick is a high fantasy author, founder of the Between the Pages author community, and by day works as the director of a wireless franchise.
The escape he felt from the world of Tolkien inspired him to create his own story, full of rich lore and legend, hoping he might provide the same escape to one who sits in the corner, among the silence, hoping for a world full of splendor...much as he still does.