Henley-on-Thames author Xander Macdonald takes his first steps into the fantasy genre with an inspired debut novel
Xander Macdonald’s debut novel, The Skyscar, was written after catching the ‘writing bug’ from an early age.
“Both my parents were in education and art and my father wrote a number of articles and books,” observes Xander, who credits authors such as H.P Lovecraft and J.R.R Tolkien as his main inspirations. “My father helped me get a poem published in an art journal in the 1980s and I’ve been writing just as a hobby ever since.”
The Skyscar takes us on a thrilling quest through the afterlife. After death, a condemned soul may find itself in a new form: as a demon on one of the many hells. These dismal worlds are home to demonic overlords and other lurking horrors, all locked in a constant battle to gain power over the Skyscar, the mortal dimension and Earth itself. Corruption and torture are common practice in the demonic worlds, even when there is little to be contested. However, when an item of real value becomes available, it is only a matter of time before war breaks out.
A pure soul, with the ability to grant immense power to its owner, has fallen into the hands of the arch-demon, Mulltroch. He is not the only demon that covets it, so battle lines are quickly drawn between the Skyscar’s many demonic clans. Angelic astral beings travel through the afterworlds in an attempt to create a balance across them. One such astral hides amongst the warring demons, attempting to recover the soul before it is lost. His search commences, spanning both the mortal and demonic realms, but such a valuable item is not easily found…
“Having published two books of romantic and fantasy poetry, I wanted to try out some prose forms,” explains Xander. “I drafted a number of short ghost stories to use as a basis for telling ghost stories at Halloween. In slight contrast, one of these tales took place on a hell, amongst many afterworlds – the concept being that souls were sent to the one that more or less matched how good or bad they had been in life. It was this concept that spawned my novel.”
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