The Ashen Viper
Volume One of The Forahm Papers
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Pub Date 17 Nov 2026 | Archive Date 6 Nov 2026
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Description
Were we not meant to know the truth?
It is by the hands of loresmen that heroes and villains are risen from history’s foundations, today’s stories that became yesterday’s histories that became the legends of yore. And from those legends emerge truths . . . of a sort. The truths that best serve a story when the facts have been lost to the decay of time.
The war that spelled the end of the Second Age was long mired in such murky truths, in these legends accepted as history, these fables and songs that served as the only surviving memory of those fateful days. Until now. Until these Forahm Papers, and whatever they may contain within.
For it is not the singular hero and villain who weave a story’s tapestry, but the many hands who break from the foundations and hold the truth aloft.
The ministry official who must investigate a sudden disappearance. The reluctant hero who saved a queen and doomed an entire people in the process. The exile whose very soul threatens the destruction of all around her. The son of a traitor who will stop at nothing to see honor restored to his name. The untested heiress faced with a long-dormant storm coming to rage over her land once more.
And the man whose name endured within the darker threads of history, cursed in the shadows as an assassin of kings, an arbiter of doom, a devil taken flesh. For if there is a truth hidden amongst these papers, it must begin here. It must begin with him: the Ashen Viper.
Fans of The Malazan Book of the Fallen and The Stormlight Archive will love this first volume in a new dark epic fantasy series from the author of The Spellbinders and the Gunslingers and The Dragons of Nóra.
A Note From the Publisher
This book contains depictions of violence, including descriptions of blood, gore, dismemberment, immolation, child soldiers, genocide, and death—including child death. There are also scenes that include religious zealotry, enslavement, and implied sexual assault, though the latter is not depicted in any great detail.
Advance Praise
"The Ashen Viper is an ambitiously chonky epic that will equally enrapture and astound. Words barely scratch the surface of what Lee has created and this is only the beginning. Fans of mammoth epics, add this to your TBR." —FanFiAddict
"Atmospheric, immersive, and steeped in vivid danger. Joseph John Lee weaves a world where shadows have teeth and not all is what it seems. Epic fantasy at its grandest!" —João F. Silva, author of Seeds of War
"At the end of the day, The Ashen Viper is simply astounding. In a lesser storyteller’s hands, it easily could have been too much. But not Lee’s. I’m wholly impressed by this book." —Bill Adams, SPFBO Finalist and author of The Godsblood Tragedy
"The Ashen Viper is a tapestry that weaves past and present together. There is so much going on in these pages you won't know which way to turn but you'll enjoy the entire ride at every point." —Grimoire Ink Reviews
"Impressive not only for its sheer ambition, but for its deft ability to make good on that ambition and provide the reader with a story that is ridiculously epic, mind-boggling broad in scope, and downright insane regarding its worldbuilding." —L. E. Garrison, author of Acts of Deicide
Marketing Plan
I would appreciate reviews being completed before the book's release on November 17 if possible; however, I also recognize that this is a long book (over 300,000 words), so please go at your own pace!
For those who have completed the book in advance of the release date and submitted reviews to Goodreads beforehand, I would kindly request setting a reminder to post the review on Amazon within the first 48 hours of release, as this helps with the algorithm boost.
Otherwise, please take your time and enjoy, and thank you for your interest in The Ashen Viper!
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9798990942073 |
| PRICE | $5.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 1161 |