Strangling of the Ocean Serpent by Seth Hobbs

What readers are saying about this universe:

“Seth Hobbs has done it again!”

“Hobbs engrosses the reader in his vast realm. Well-written and complex world building with plenty of bloody action in a techno-magical saga.”

“A whole new perspective of world-building that is both vast and horrifying in scope.”

“Hobbs is a master teller of these ambitious, complex sagas!”

“Rome (including the origins of Christianity) meets Game of Thrones meets Conspiracy Theory meets Outbreak.”

“An exciting page turner!”

“The World-Building is exceptional!”

“Patience, Boy…patience. That is how we have gotten this far.” — Abbilonn Shayzzar

In this final entry to the Ocean Serpent Prequel Trilogy, an old sage documents the waning days of the tumultuous and morally ambiguous Kezz’arg Dynasty and the Sendyne Empire.

Emperor Kibbo Kezz’arg has three sons that might inherit their father’s crown. Kagimus, the eldest, shows a keen mind and has his father’s respect. Kwelton, the sociopathic and miscreant middle son, longs for a chance to get rid of his older brother or win his father’s favor, even if his nature will never allow it. Klarton, the youngest son, is a brain-damaged simpleton who will never possess the skills needed to tame the empire, at least on his own.

Captain Rotilla Voxinus is enjoying a meteoric rise through the Sendyne ranks, due to his swordsmanship, command skills, and his family’s friendship and loyalty to the Crown. He is more like a brother to Kagimus Kezz’arg than the latter’s own kin.

When all three Kezz’arg princes are sent to Pheloquot, to join Voxinus and his superiors, they must learn to work together to root out rebels and rabble rousers, while putting aside their differences. However, some differences are difficult to mend, and the alluring and seductive daughter of a nobleman adds fuel to the fire. Oluraa Plondark is an exotic beauty that catches not only the eye of Rotilla Voxinus and Pheloquotian locals, but the attentions of Kwelton Kezz’arg as well.

In the vast, untamed deserts of Western Sendya, exiles, religious outcasts, and all manner of criminals and vagabonds wander the landscape. Some of them await a Messiah that will change their world, while others mold events themselves. When one unfortunate heretic is brutalized and banished to live there, the elites in Ecstasy Bay have no idea what kind of ramifications his exile will bring, changing the course of history forever.

Meanwhile, far to the east, on the tropical desert island of Unaple’, young Imak al Avkar finds himself locked up briefly in the terrifying Black Basement Prison. While he delves deeper into a life of violent crimes and drugs, his brother, Akasi, seeks out a future at the School of Scholars, working hard to make the family proud. While Akasi loves his troubled brother, he may find himself on a collision course with disaster, as the siblings struggle to carve out their own place in this fringe province of the Sendyne Empire.

In the Sendyne capital of Ecs