During the era of Augustus, there is a wild, untamed land far in the north, where no Roman sandal has yet trodden, and there Maroboodus, the son and adeling of a Goth lord Hulderic simmers with rage over the many injustices their family has to endure.
Maroboodus is not alone in his malcontent. Competition for survival and glory is a brutal, daily struggle. Life is harsh indeed for the tribes of the north and while god Woden's people, the troubled Goth nations have spread south and east from the islands of Gothonia, surging over the sea Rome calls Mare Gothonia to find new homes, the family of Maroboodus has taken dangerous lands in the east, pushing the old tribes of the Svea from the coasts. There, death by spear and hunger is part of daily life. The tribes of Maroboodus, led by the mighty Friednot and Hughnot of the Goths, live by the Long-Lake, enduring Saxon raids and Svea hostility. Only family ties and wise alliances can help them, because even the Thiuda of the noblest of the ancient Goth families, their old relative the Boat-Lord, resent and fear those who would build something on their own.
Alliances get strained when high lords die, and old grudges will risk everything when the tribes should remain strong and united. In such a time, the troubled Maroboodus finds his patience and endurance sorely tested by another injustice after a victorious battle, and seeks to change the fortunes of their family, even against the wishes of his father, Hulderic. He does so by allying with their nemesis, hoping to grasp a high-born woman as his own and to bring glory to his name and family.
Will the boldness of Maroboodus change the fate of the squabbling, threatened Goths, or plunge them, and Maroboodus, whose blood is plagued by an ancient curse of Lok, into the arms of their enemies?
In this historical fiction adventure story of ancient Germania, we embark on the road of the trials of Maroboodus the Goth, as he eventually becomes one of the mightiest Germani kings.
Maroboodus is a spintoff series to the best-selling The Hraban Chronicles. Maroboodus is daily between 15 to 40 k total in Amazon rankings. We have sold over 22 thausand books in 1.5 years, with around 70 per day.
RAVENNA (A.D. 37)
It’s called the city of silence.
While no city is truly silent, Ravenna is certainly different from the many hideous pits of villainy I’ve had the misfortune to tour in my time. The city is deserving of the title, though, and by that I mean silence, not villainy. Ravenna’s well-built streets do not echo with the jubilant screams of the street urchins, there are few street vendors hawking their wares, and the general chaos of humanity seems strangely subdued as you cock your head and try to catch a hint of the hour of the day. You do so by listening carefully to the clues, you judge it by the way the people around you attend to their business, like I know the harried, crooked-nosed teacher’s schedules, the man who dismisses his class when it gets insufferably hot on the street corner where they sit down to learn the basics of writing and reading. I know it’s midday as he is right now screaming at his unhappy class of middle-class boys, and he is getting ready to spend his few denarii on wine and kneaded bread down the street. Also, at midday there is a steady stream of people moving around the piled streets below, as midday is the time you often meet your friends and clients, but still, even at that busiest of hours, Ravenna is peaceful.
I shake my head, taking a long, suffering breath. I’m to meet my guest at midday and so I prepare.
