Title: Farthingale & the Red Banner
Author: Tim Lockette
Fillister Farthingale is accustomed to being the smartest person in the room.
He’s just a commoner. But Farthingale has become wealthy by buying and selling, by questioning the legends, and by finding win-win solutions where feudal leaders see only pretexts for war. He’s convinced that one day men like him — and not kings — will rule the Isle of Seven Cities.
When the four nations of the Isle agree to band together to fight the dragon that plagues them all, Farthingale hatches an alternate plan — a plan to sabotage the dragon war and still come away with a fortune in gold.
But on the way to this dragon heist, Farthingale stumbles into the middle of a peasant revolution. The revolutionaries want to put commoners in power, exactly what Farthingale has always wanted. Unable to escape, he’ll have to choose between loyalty to his king and faith in his vision of the future.
But then, Farthingale has never liked accepting the choices other people have given him…
Book One of The Last of the Grognards
ISBN: 978-1-951393-60-1 (paperback)
Price: $tba (paperback) $tba (Kindle ebook/epub)
Release date: March 2027
Praise for Farthingale & the Red Banner:
“Tim Lockette’s Farthingale & the Red Banner offers a refreshing take on one of fantasy’s oldest stories– the dragon slayer. But what makes Lockette’s fiction so compelling is not simply the worlds he creates or the adventures he sets in motion. It is his ability to make every character feel effortlessly, unmistakably human. You could be forgiven for forgetting that they are fictional characters at all.
“That gift may have something to do with Lockette’s life as a reporter. Journalism requires more than collecting facts. At its best, it requires learning how to listen to people, to understand what they want, what they fear, what they believe about themselves, and why they make the choices they do. Lockette brings that same curiosity to his fiction. Even when he is writing about dragonslayers, distant kingdoms, and impossible adventures, his deepest interest remains human motivation. The result is fantasy that sweeps you away without losing sight of the people at its center. In a time that can sometimes feel desperately short on patience, curiosity, and humanity, Tim Lockette’s novels offer all three.”
— Wesley R. Bishop, author of Planet of Ghosts and Other Stories
