Familiar Fantasy, With Clear Complexity
The Plight of Steel is a complex fantasy tale that draws from your favorite series, all while carving its own path.
The Plight of Steel (Book 1)
The debut novel from sixteen-year-old author Tony Del Degan is a high-fantasy behemoth filled with multiple plotlines, characters, and kingdoms, all connected in a web of conspiracy, violence, love, and humanity. As the first novel in the Plight of Steel series, this book will charm you, anger you, make you fall in love and make you hate.
The Point of Chaos (Book 2)
As the fall gives way to winter, the Known World remains fraught with whisperings of oncoming war. Events set into motion can no longer be undone, and in the heavens, the Gods watch in primordial silence. A boy-prince, soon to be king, wrestles with a discovery that will rock the annals of history. A banished queen rallies support to win back her stolen throne. A scheming noble infiltrates an already unsteady kingdom with plots to topple it entirely, and a Southern royal family contends with their patriarch’s lust for revenge against a personal foe.
Not your typical fantasy story
The Plight of Steel series is centered around the conflicts between the royal families of The Known World. In the first novel, 8 separate storylines weave intricately into a web of conspiracy, murder, and war. Each has a beginning and an end, yet all depend on each other to work fully. It is intelligent, complicated, and capable of keeping your attention for hours.
Drawing from influences such as: Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, The Witcher, and many more, this story sets a high bar for High-fantasy storytelling in the modern era. Special effort is made to create a world so believable, it is easy to become wholly immersed in. You will sympathize with some characters, and hate others, and form your own unique opinions on who should live and who should die.
The Storylines
Cassara Vendyros, daughter of the most powerful man in The Known World, must learn to own her power and become greater than her tyrant father. Her family is renowned for its brutality and consistent harnessing of the gift of the Reverie – an ability that allows one to control fire and see into the future. Will she rise up and end the brutal conceptions about her family, or will she fall under the spell of absolute invincibility?
Adrian Starmane, a haughty prince of a clouded continent, comes to learn that he is the legendary Savior of mankind, destined to destroy the Specter King – an entity created by an angry god to massacre humanity. A severed arm, a painful death of a close figure, and the pressures of the world are obstacles to his rise to power as honorable King of Windspeak.
Alistair Wildlight, the unfeeling king of Nightfall, has his mind slowly poisoned by those around him who seek his crown. He secludes himself in his keep, allowing his people to revolt and slaughter each other in a bout of anarchy, all while his son Camus, a moody outcast, struggles to live up to his father’s grandiose expectations.
The great trade city of Velerin, constructed by the One King during the First Age, has passed from king to king since his death. Many seek to gain control of it, in pursuit of the riches and power that come with the crown. Others, given the throne against their will, want nothing more than to flee the heavy weight of the Cobalt Crown of Alvador Zorander.
Aerynir Vaenoria, the Lord of Ashes and King of the Elves, has despised the memory of his father since he lost the war against the humans ages prior. The Elven kingdom of Deyeron, a cluster of continents in the North, is now ruled by the royal houses of men, but Aerynir wants his realm back. He constructs an elaborate plot to rip apart the kingdoms from the inside, hoping he might make it easier to win the war he plans to start.
Cantarell Villalon, king of the island of Villamaje, holds a vendetta against a man who once wronged him. Now, after failing to find and slaughter this foe, he works to capture sailors and wanderers who wreck in his waters, locking them away in a menagerie dungeon to await their turn to find and kill the King’s elusive enemy.
The mangled prince of Yvaereth sees enemies in shadows – enemies he thinks will lay claim to his godforsaken throne. His bastard sister is hidden somewhere, and he wants her dead, believing her to be a viable heir to the throne of Yvaereth. Duncan Wysteria, the prince, is a sadist, vile and wicked, and the head of the largest slave empire in the Known World.
These are the main stories, and within them lie smaller components of a grand plot. Over 70 characters inhabit this story, all capable of good and terrible evil. You will relate to some, find hatred of others, and have your emotions twisted in complex ways when some inevitably lose their heads…
The Author
Tony Del Degan is a young adult author, screenwriter, playwright, film director, and actor. The Plight of Steel was his first novel, and he worked on it for nearly two years before finally publishing it. He has a unique skill for writing that far surpasses what would be expected of someone his age, and his creative mind is always working, coming up with new and engaging stories.
Buy on Amazon
The Plight of Steel is available for purchase on Amazon and Google Play Books. Please consider supporting the project, as there is much more to come in the future, and you are sure to enjoy it.
“Thank you personally for looking into this story. It means the world to me. My goal is to have this story read by as many people as possible, and for those readers to find something in it that they can truly connect with, no matter how small.”