Riders on the storm
Pyk is a lazy yet stouthearted fisherman who just wants to coast through life and hang out in a seaside town with a few close friends. But when the centuries-old, god-like tyrant who orphaned him resurfaces, Pyk gets dragged into a road trip of revenge with a dubious group of companions: a drunken blacksmith with a literally world-shattering secret; a tiny chef armed with a couple of sharp knives and a giant squirrel; and an alluring, smart-aleck tomb raider piloting one of the rarest treasures in all of Elarin—the skipship Storm.
He's no fighter, but Pyk is on an unavoidable heading to face off with Kaira, an indestructible superhuman who has stifled the ruined land of Elarin’s growth over the course of nine hundred years. And he’s got no clue how to beat her. To uncover a shred of hope, the Storm’s ragtag crew must brave warlike islanders, navigate overgrown cities teeming with the undead of ages past, explore long-forgotten military bunkers, and infiltrate a towering desert stronghold to resurrect ancient technology. If they can manage all that and not kill each other in the process, they might just bring down an unbeatable foe and begin to put the world back to its natural order.
Combining post-apocalyptic adventure, action, humor, horror, and a dash of romance, Riders on the Storm is a sci-fantasy novel about the importance of found family, duty to a greater good, and the cost of revenge. The book features over 60 grayscale illustrations and is the first of a planned trilogy. Below you will find a sampling of the art included in the final book, which is currently entrenched in the querying process.
Color work
Below is a mix of color art, including color endpaper maps and a selection of small print additions to the eventual Riders on the Storm Limited Edition Kickstarter.
Pyk
Cassidy
Map of Elarin
The signara
Mariyana
Oben the Undying
Pyk at the Southern Reaches
Korbos, Pyk, & Mariyana promo image
Development work
Riders on the Storm is my personal IP that I've been developing for the last several years, encompassing elements of all the genres I dearly love—from science fiction and fantasy to space opera, westerns, post-apocalyptic tragedies, and zombie adventures, among other influences. Below you'll find a number of developmental paintings and concepts (not necessarily representative of the final story, mind you). Riders on the Storm will be the first of a three-book series of illustrated novels.
