The Obsidian Statue

Coming April 8

Faral may be a carouser and womanizer, but he's also an elite warrior known as a zhalyat, who harnesses the power of the zhal in the form of a sword made of pure light.

Neiska is the son of Count Viranchuli, one of the most powerful men in the city. He is vain and serious and very much against carousing and womanizing and anyone who engages in it.

Count Viranchuli has just contracted Faral to accompany Neiska on a mission to retrieve an invaluable statue in another city, a simple task that shouldn't take more than a few days. But when the statue disappears, things get complicated.

Their search leads them to a villainous count, the dark underbelly of the city and a person Faral didn't think he'd ever see again. Will the two men be able to put their differences aside and recover the statue Count Viranchuli is desperate to obtain?

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About the Author

Matthew J. Ball is an author who was born and raised in Maryland. After decades of expert procrastination, he finally made use of the vast amounts of fantasy and sci-fi media he has consumed and wrote his first novel, The Obsidian Statue. Between his wife and two kids and his day job in IT, he manages to find time to keep writing occasionally and plans to publish many more novels set in the world introduced in this book.

Pronunciation Guide

In a general sense, Miznean is pronounced with more or less a Russian accent. Each consonant and vowel has a single pronunciation with two exceptions: O and L. Most letters don't need an explanation, as they are pretty much the same as English but with a Russian accent.

  • A – Always A as in “father”
  • B
  • D
  • DH – Voiced TH sound from “the” or “there”
  • E – Always short E as in “get”.
  • F
  • G – Always hard G as in “go” or “get”
  • H – Farther in the front than an English H, made by putting the back of the tongue up close to the back roof of your mouth. Similar to the Spanish J.
  • I – Always “ee” as in “jeep”.
  • K
  • L – The only consonant that has multiple pronunciations and depends on what follows. Before A, O and U, it's a hard L, like a Scot pronouncing Larry. Before I, E and Y, it's like the Irish pronunciation of Liam.
  • M
  • N
  • O – When stressed, always as in “go” without the closing of the mouth at the end. Like a Spanish O. When unstressed, closer to a schwa or even an A.
  • P
  • R – Slightly trilled as in Russian and Spanish
  • S – Always as in “Sing”, never a Z or any other sound
  • T
  • U – Always as in “group”
  • V
  • Y
  • Z
  • ZH – French “J” or in English most often an “S”, as in Asia or treasure.

Names

  • Faral – Fah-RAL
  • Neiska – NEIska
  • Viranchuli – Vee-RAN-chulee

Map of Miznea

small map image of Miznea