Published: Dec. 20, 2011
Words: 67,212 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781476142029

Short description

A fairy tale about an enchanted princess, a deathless sorcerer, a fallen knight, a man of God, a bad house, a soulless girl, the Devil's child, a madman, a witch, and Santa Claus. A story of redemption. By the award-winning author of the Nobilis role-playing game.

Extended description

In a time of wizards and kings, one name stood above the rest. He was Montechristien Groeneveldt.

He had been weak. He had been a failure. But beyond darkness, beyond damnation, beyond all suffering and all sorrow, he found the jewel of the philosophers. He found the pure magic of the cintamani — of the alchemic gold.

From that point forward his power was limitless. He bound the Devil, shattered suicide’s son, and took wickedness as his bride. He grew butterflies on trees and timed out life with flowers. He broke the world and sewed it up again. And as the time of his death approached his children came to his Castle to dispose of the matter of their legacy. (Read more) In a time of wizards and kings, one name stood above the rest. He was Montechristien Groeneveldt.

He had been weak. He had been a failure. But beyond darkness, beyond damnation, beyond all suffering and all sorrow, he found the jewel of the philosophers. He found the pure magic of the cintamani — of the alchemic gold.

From that point forward his power was limitless. He bound the Devil, shattered suicide’s son, and took wickedness as his bride. He grew butterflies on trees and timed out life with flowers. He broke the world and sewed it up again. And as the time of his death approached his children came to his Castle to dispose of the matter of their legacy.

Violet, his eldest and most dear, who had betrayed him before she was even half-grown.

Francescu, the deathless sorcerer, who had turned his back on the affairs of the world.

Manfred, the fallen knight, whose strength was legend and whose spear was magic’s bane.

Tomas the cruel, who had looked in his tenth year upon the face of God.

Christine, the mad sorceress, who wandered the world in her living house.

Sophie the skinchanger, soulless and Devil-tainted, and once the one Montechristien had loved best.

Elisabet, the Devil’s child, a creature as much of shadow as of life.

When Montechristien stumbled towards the grave at last, the talents of his children turned against their siblings, every hand against the other, and the halls of his Castle Groeneveldt ran with blood.

**

"Jenna Moran writes with barbs and delicacy the tales and legends you loved in your dreams, but thought you forgot upon waking."
-- Kenneth Hite, author of the Suppressed Transmissions and Out of the Box columns and numerous books and roleplaying game products.
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Tags

romance, family drama, christmas, fairy tale, souls, knights, santa claus, sorceress, sorcerer, ninjas, hitherby, evil house, magical color theory, rhyming frogs, spinachspiders, isle of ys

Available ebook reading formats

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Reviews

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Review by: Jason Eberlin on Aug. 15, 2012 :
I finally finished An Unclean Legacy by Jenna Katerin Moran, and I need to gush about it.

I picked up my copy from Smashwords a while back. A long while back. I'm afraid I've become a terrible reader in the last few years--putting down books for weeks at a time, getting caught up in whatever MMO. Worse is the "convenience" of e-books. I don't have a dedicated e-book reader, so I try to read them on my computer...and end up browsing or gaming instead.

An Unclean Legacy was just tricky for me to gain momentum on. It's very short chapters gave me too many chances to set it aside for a little while. But ah! when I got towards the middle of the thing (recently), putting it aside was only possible because I started reading it at work.

The book jumps around in time, focusing, for the most part, on the actions of the family Groeneveldt, a group of sorcerers, heroes, saints and one ninja. It explores their characters, then jumps way back in time to the origins of the setting--to the fall of various angels for various reasons. We see larger-than-life characters with their particulars, strengths and foibles, and larger-than-life concepts that, as the book moves on, we see are pushing those characters around. We see Wickedness, Hopelessness, Life, and Pure Good Intention wrestle each other and the members of family Groeneveldt (soon after we've picked out favorites). Moran makes these forces all the more vivid and compelling in our heads with crayons--Red, Black, Purple, Orange, Blue and Gold.

And way she skips around in time to give you a glimpse of what's going on/has happened already is simply great storytelling--she starts with the little examples of character, skipping around the big events. We aren't ready for them yet. Almost there. Nah. BAM!

It's no secret I like Nobilis, and I've always thought the Sidereals of White Wolf's Exalted RPG were very fun. But I need to say that this book shows Jenna shines with the Knife-point Intentionality of the Blue as a creative fantasy author.
(reviewed long after purchase)

Review by: GeekyGirlReview on April 05, 2012 :
I liked this book. It is very well written and it got me reading to the very end. I admit this book isn't like book I usually read and I was a little worried I would not like it but I started reading this yesterday afternoon and I couldn't stop reading. This book is a book I recommend.
(reviewed long after purchase)

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