A world you'll never want to leave

Serious fantasy for serious fantasy fans. This sweeping fantasy series tells four unique stories in tandem. Prophecy and political intrigue battle over the destiny of a future Earth. Intertwined lives of the rare and awakening Mindgifted and those determined to control them come together in an ending you will never forget.

Ensemble storytelling style. Compelling characters. Rich world-building. Believable magic.

What would you become… if becoming what you feared most was the only way to survive?

Legend of the Storm Hawks

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Path of the Spirit Runner

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The Witch of Lurago

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Heart of a Chalyn

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WHAT READERS Are SAYing

A sweeping epic… Readers of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy will find Legend of the Storm Hawks satisfyingly well-detailed… realistic, involving, and thoroughly riveting.

D. Donovan

Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

Real life, with all of its intrigues, in a near perfect fantasy setting

GOOdreads REviewER

5-Star Review

Stunning world-building, dramatic characterization, a suspenseful and surprising plot, and a strong thread of fantastical elements. Highly recommend.

Kimberlee J Benart

Reviewer, Readers' Favorite

5-star Review

Prophecies. Oppression. A rich and detailed world at stake. Jam-packed with enough magic and adventure to keep epic fantasy readers glued…

Independent BOOK Review

A story filled with intrigue as characters embark on a journey backed by prophecy and tinged with uncertainty… the depth of Game of Thrones without the overwhelming complexity… will effortlessly suck you into its world and leave you wanting more.

Literary Titan

Literary Titan Book Award

5-Star Review

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ABOUT The Series

Nigel, the Master Manipulator

Seth, The Reluctant Soldier

Isobel, The Gifted Healer

bound by destiny.

Can they Stop the World from Ending... Again?

At its heart, Rootstock Saga is about becoming. Evolution and adaptation. Written in the classic, mutliple POV style, this character-driven series will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.

Legend of the Storm Hawks (January 2020) opens in the year 4399 of a future Earth cycle. Set predominantly in the Kingdom of Innis, it introduces the major characters: Nigel, Seth, and Isobel and follows them through their Awakening mindgifts and an unlikely Joining, and takes them to the precipice of war.

Path of the Spirit Runner (March 2020) picks up the tale in 4413. Seth and Isobel are raising a family in a time of increasing oppression of anyone and anything Aurel. Meanwhile, Malatchee Mico is defending the Este Nation in Tallu from Laradish incursions, and Tobias Buchanan is building a New Rhynn for his clan. But the Awakening is stirring in the Este, as well, as their Spirit Runners grow stronger.

The Witch of Lurago (May 2020) follows an idealistic young Redan Connor into the heart of Larad. When he inadvertently draws the attention of Anastacia, the lovely young ward of His Supreme Holiness Amadeo Constans, he must keep his identity hidden or die. Meanwhile, war breaks out in Innis and Tallu, and old friends are tested to the limits.

Heart of a Chalyn (September 2020) brings the challenges of rebuilding a broken kingdom and reclaiming the survivors counted lost. The N’si and Kazera take sides in the upcoming battle to defeat the Watchers. Will the mindgifted chalyns be ready for the fight?

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L.H. Leonard

Author

Legend of the Storm Hawks is the prelude novel in the Rootstock Saga. Set on a future Earth where our own history echoes from the shadows, the tale is filled with political intrigue, inner demons, swords, and magic. Of course, no epic is complete without a few dragons.

Legend of the Storm Hawks

Someday soon, your world will end. Ending is not as final as it sounds. Our world has ended before. When it does, be patient. Those of your time will linger and watch new cycles unfold. Some will walk this spinning blue rock again. A few will shape its destiny.

Sample the audiobook. Narrated By Jorge Gonzalez Pena

Fantasy… evolved. McCaffrey’s mind-magic meets Martin’s schemes and intrigue. Elves and dragons defy the tropes. Nenes and kazera are more like us than not in the Rootstock Saga, a sweeping tale of evolution and survival that asks, “What could you become, if becoming what you feared most were the only way to survive?”

A master player convinces the pawn the move is its own. Nigel Willoughby has been at the game longer than most, but lately the pawns keep turning into rogue knights. It’s damned inconvenient of them, considering the world is about to end again.

The Watchers will soon declare this cycle over, as they have so many cycles before, shrugging off yet another rise and fall of humankind, and giving the dragons another turn at dominion.

Nigel is buying time with his clarity of Hindsight and aptitude for reading the Patterns. The occasional assassination, bribery, and treason are merely expediencies for the cause. Keeping Children of Promise from getting themselves killed before they can save humankind requires a certain fluidity in one’s ethics.

Brynmohr is King of the Firstborn, and Twelvestones is the last bastion of a once-mighty nene dynasty. As the first people to walk the earth, the Firstborn consider it their birthright to rule over mankind.

But men breed faster than nenes; they are builders, and their swords are strong. Half-breeds between their kinds are always sterile, but the daughters born of Brynmohr’s irrational affection for a woman are defying the Patterns. He must face the unthinkable choice of sacrificing his daughters as rootstock for the sake of Firstborn survival.

Sethlyan and Isobel are unaware they’re expendable pawns in an increasingly complex game.

 

Legend of the Storm Hawks is the introduction to the Rootstock Saga. The complete series of four novels will be released January through July 2020.

In a tale of evolution and survival, adversity awakens magic. Science meets fantasy in the awakening of psychic and psionic abilities. Not a light read, it’s serious fantasy for serious fantasy fans.

Rich world-building. Memorable and characters, none entirely good or evil. Complex relationship dynamics between friends, families, and lovers. Mature themes of bigotry, abuse, theocracy, gender roles, climate change, and temptations of power and privilege.

Intricately interwoven plots converge in a long, rewarding end game.

 

Seth is the second son of the Second of Aleron. He’s tired of hearing rumors he and his friends are the prophesied Storm Hawks, destined to free Rhynn from centuries of oppression. Gaven’s keen eyesight, Aengus’ quick sword, and Seth’s knack for training collies are hardly the stuff of legend. Seth knows better. So does the Other, the voice of madness only he can hear.

Isobel survived the Beast of Monaughty. Her father is dead, but his brutality haunts her. When her brother, the Rhi’Iverach, forges an alliance with the Hawks of Aleron, Isobel finds herself promised to a stranger named Sethlyan.

Her trust is hard to earn. His is hard to give. A deadly attack leaves them with a telepathic bond neither wants.

Isobel’s awakening empath’s gift risks her being branded a sorceress. Seth rejects his mindrider’s gift, refusing to take anyone’s free will from them.

Caught in a convergence of the Joining and the Awakening, chafing under Innish oppression, and evading the censure of the Church, the proud clans of Rhynn must align to protect their own while hiding and nurturing their mindgifted.

When rebellion brings Nigel and his mindgifted charges to the precipice of war, they must choose between hiding their secrets or wielding their mindgifts, fighting their oppressors or sacrificing freedom for peace.

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PAth of the Spirit RuNNer

Path of the Spirit Runner is the engaging continuation of the Rootstock Saga.

Evolution and oppression. Magical mindgifts and dragon science. The characters you loved in Legend of the Storm Hawks come of age and weave their own threads in the Patterns.

Gifted or cursed? Isobel is a healer, and the Hawks who accepted her, broken and different as she was, need her help. But she must hide the truth behind her healing power.

The Prophet is back in Innis and stoking the embers of bigotry and superstition, scouring the realm and imprisoning mindgifted Aurels. When he corners Isobel, will she fight back or succumb to her old fears and lingering scars of the Beast of Monaughty? Will she answer the call of a healer if it costs her everything she loves?

Across the sea, Tobias Buchanan is racing against time to build New Rhynn as a haven for his clan. As the noose of oppression squeezes tighter in Innis, the Hawks may soon be forced to choose between their homeland and their way of life. Can he earn a place for his Hawks amongst the Este of Tallu? Can he prove Rhynns are worthy of their trust?

“Oppression fosters resistance. Fanaticism fans intolerance. Greed sparks conspiracy. Masterfully continues the dramatic world-building, suspenseful plot, complex characters, and fantasy elements into the new land of Tallu. Narrative is well-paced and thoroughly engaging. Leonard’s skill in character development with such a complex cast is utterly amazing,

… entranced with the imaginative tree city of Veridian and the dauntless personality of young Lamochatee and his coming of age.”

Kimberlee J Benart, Readers’ Favorite Reviewer

Meanwhile, the Este are discovering their own place in the Awakening and the Joining. Spirit runners grow more powerful by the year, and the Mists hover closer over Tallu. But will it be enough when the water rises? Will they be ready before the cycle ends?

Path of the Spirit Runner introduces new lands, new peoples, and new creatures.

Mystical Tallu lies across the wide ocean from the realms of Innis, Bresca, Larad, and the Ten Kingdoms.

Tallu is the dominion of the Este Nation, under the protection of their Chief of Chiefs, the indomitable Malatchee Mico.

But Larad claims Philippeon, to the South. Bresca is building forts and allying with the Ice Tribes in the North. Peace is a fragile choice for all.

Here Be Dragons!

Meet the Kazera, last remnants of dragonkind. Unlikely allies in fending off the end of the cycle.

THe Witch of LuraGo

The Witch of Lurago chronicles the wildfire of awakenings and rebellions racing across the Rootstock Saga world. 

This is when good gets really good.

Resistance simmers. Rebellion erupts. After years of striving for a peaceful end to the incessant oppression and incursions, Rhynn and Este rise up to free their people, and war sweeps the continents. 

Seth Callan leads an army of unlikely allies into battle against traitors while Queen Anne is caught in a Puppeteer’s web.

As he leads the rebel army on a relentless chase, the Butcher of Bloody Bend retreats toward Jorendon. All the while, Seth’s darkest secret follows him. The voice of the Other grows ever more insistent, daring him to face a truth that could cost him all he loves.

Malatchee Mico confronts Tobias when he learns the truth about Redan, and knows Tobias betrayed his trust. Determined to free his sister’s son from captivity, Malatchee gives Tobias one chance to restore the balance or leave Tallu forever.

They will join forces and go to war in Philippeon. Together, they will drive the Laradian snakes into the sea.

But with war comes sacrifice. Who will pay the price?

In context of the classic five-act play, The Witch of Lurago is the Rising Action leading up to the Climax. Considering Rootstock Saga is a four-book series, this is where good gets really good.

World-building checked off. All the major characters fleshed out and their arcs climbing their intended trajectories. Game board set for the final gambit.

I love this book. Nevermind authoring. As a reader of books, I love this book.

L.H. Leonard

Far away in La Gracia, Larad, Mouse gets a name and meets her Reader. The hard world might have finally given her one small good thing for her own, but will it last?

At Twelvestones, Dara‘s burgeoning hindsight awakens troubling dreams. The dreams unearths buried memories, and he struggles with the horror of his crime.

Deighton‘s vanity finally betrays him. He stands accused of a murder he did not commit, but as mass hysteria sweeps the kingdom, he faces an accounting for his years of deceit.

Puppeteers light the dry kindling of genocide, and nenes everywhere flee for their lives.

And for reasons all their own, the kazera venture out of hiding.

The Rootstock Saga characters you know so well are in a race against time. The water is rising, and the Watchers are coming for the harvest. Even as war distracts them from the paths the Patterns demand they follow, when the Witch of Lurago awakens a mindgift like no other, the chalyns and their destinies begin to converge.

Heart of a ChalyN

Heart of a Chalyn sees the mindgifted drawn together to defend the last cycle of the Rootstock Saga world. 

The rebellion is won. Rhynn belongs to Rhynns again, and the rose is set to bloom. But rebuilding is proving harder than conquering.

“Confounding, isn’t it?” said Nigel. “How much easier it is to take a thing apart than to put it back together?”

“I expected no less. I tore down a kingdom.” Seth tugged off his gloves. “I can walk away after securing a better one in its place.”

For Seth, that means setting the crown on someone else’s head, and building walls to hide the secret no Rhynn could forgive. But his walls keep out more than he intended. After everything he fought for is stripped away, he realizes the will to choose is all that’s left.

In Tallu, the Este are settling into a wary peace. Tobias is haunted by the hollow-eyed ghosts of the lost. Gone, but not forgotten. He embarks on a daring journey to the islands, and his search opens the door to the a shadowy world where every name matters. Can he find and release the caged storm before it’s too late?

“Second chances are starker than the first. We know going in what losing will cost us.” –Seth

Nigel travels to Tallu to honor Brynmohr’s dying wish. Against all odds and despite his arrogance, when he counts all the children and grandchildren scattered from Rhynn to Tallu, Nigel finds himself the surrogate patriarch to what is likely the largest family any nene has ever known. He faces his past, questions his choices, and vows to make amends to those he wronged. But then, discovering the Dawnguard’s darkest secret draws him back to Rhynn.

The characters and their stories converge in, Heart of a Chalyn.

The four storylines in this saga unfolded in parallel: Aleron, Este, the Firstborn, and the Orthodoxy.

This last book in the series is the culmination of all their struggles, regrets, and dreams. It’s a surprising ending, and one you will never forget. This could be us.

Rootstock was ten years in the making. Off and on obsession. Pure enjoyment. What a rare and wonderful feeling for a storyteller, to have the story told.

What comes next? I already have a draft for a new novel. The setting?

The Endless Ocean.

L.H. Leonard

Nigel is no sooner gone than a couple of runaway Rhynns show up in Tallu.

Ava and Rory find a new mentor for their mindgifts. Ava picks up where the story left off, while Lamochatee searches for the missing Ayohotulee. Will an unlikely bond bring a legend to life?

Mouse haunts the lonely archives in La Gracia, waiting for her Reader to return. They try to convince her he is dead. Father says she is chasing a delusion. But it’s hard to lie to a truthtaster.

Meanwhile, in Camran, a rogue mindrider is devouring embers to feed her powerful mindgift. Unrestrained by conscience or sanity, her twisted plan to survive the cycle’s end draws the chalyns together for the final battle.

“We are two sides of a coin, a chalyn of war and peace.” –Seth

The toughest challenge they face? Finding the enemy amidst the hollow monsters and wolves of straw.

“What we call life is not the only form life knows.” –Amadeo

All the storylines woven through the Rootstock Saga come together in this fourth and final novel of the series.