Art by Daniel Reuben Young

Greetings, Traveller!

Welcome! My name is Craig Winterburn and I’ve spent the last five years writing ARCHMAGION, a very long young adult fantasy novel (hovering about 1.4 million words, in 178 chapters) which I intend to release chapter by chapter on a roughly-weekly schedule. The entire text will eventually be available for free. My inspirations include the seminal Worm by Wildbow, the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin, Frank Herbert’s Dune hexalogy, Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends, the Eddings’ Belgariad… and of course the works of Professor Tolkien.

Although Archmagion takes place in something of a kitchen sink fantasy world replete with the typical flora and fauna, deities and dimensions, the plot is laser-focussed on the gigantic city of Mund. (I have included my crude hand-drawn attempts at maps in the site gallery, but I fear I’m incapable of quite getting the scale of the place across!) Setting inspirations include Ancient Rome, Victorian London, Ankh-Morpork, and Marvel’s New York.

Archmagion features an irreverent protagonist and a bit of black humour as a tonal counterpoint to a setting that might’ve otherwise been on the grimdark side. In this story you’ll find a lot of spooky situations, high-stakes situations and grisly descriptions – but there is always going to be a light at the end of the tunnel. (I was comfortable reading it to my preteen son, to whom, of course, it was hardly grisly enough!) That said, the story is treated seriously and with the gravity it deserves. Some characters will come to unfortunate ends, however deserved. Blending action and philosophy, horror and comedy, you should hopefully find something here for everyone. Sexual acts are only alluded to or obfuscated with metaphorical language, but the majority of the main characters are older teens so you should expect some amorous encounters and mild innuendo. There is no graphic sexual language, nor any hard swear words.

Most chapters (the protagonist’s) are written in first person. Close third person is employed for prologues and other switched-perspective chapters. Although the novel is subdivided into thirteen smaller books, I have further confused things by splitting it into five thematic parts to be released in six volumes. (Don’t worry, it’ll make sense when you get stuck in.) You can read with confidence that the whole thing is completed – with the aid of my long-suffering wife I will be doing a last spot of editing as I upload, but the primary text is finished. I don’t expect chapters to undergo further amendments once they’re up but if you spot any particularly egregious errors please feel free to point them out. I’m extremely new to this, but I hope not to make too many mistakes!

Town-Crier

If you’re a veteran, find the latest chapter here.

If you’re new around these parts, find the first chapter here.

Art can be found in the Gallery. (Disclaimer on maps: unfortunately Mund’s cartographers are poor artists – they tried their best, believe me! If there are any discrepancies, please go with what the text says…)

The Archmagion subreddit.

Chapters are being posted to Royal Road.

CRAIG WINTERBURN 2022