For the Crown of Steel
FOR THE CROWN OF STEEL
Empires rise. Kingdoms fracture. Men must choose where they stand.
Vindice Maravoy was born to rule in Gallesse, heir to an ancient House and to a secret guarded for generations. But when his family defied the might of the Dosthan Empire, they were erased from history.
Stripped of lands and title, Vindice finds exile in the Kingdom of Malia-an old and civilsed land in decline, torn apart by internal wars and ruled by a feeble, corrupt crown. While its nobles conspire and its people bleed, the shadow of imperial conquest once again stretches across the northern borders.
Vindice knows the enemy. He has seen what the Empire does to those who resist.
As mercenary, commander, and reluctant player in Malia's political game, Vindice is drawn into a struggle that is no longer just about battlefields, but councils, alliances, betrayals, and impossible compromises. To defend the land he has come to love, he may have to abandon his own principles.
For the Crown of Steel is an epic novel of war and power, loyalty and ambition, where the fate of nations rests on the choices of nobles, captains, and assassins.
See also the Italian version "Per la Corona d'Acciaio" with 80 reviews, and the sequel and spin-off tales and novels on www.amazon.it, or follow the author and discover alla his novels and Historical European Martial Arts books in Italian and English on: https: //www.amazon.it/stores/Marco-Rubboli/author/B0B72BJYHC/allbooks
For the Crown of Steel was born from two lifelong passions: storytelling and the study of wars and duels as they were truly fought.
For more than thirty years I have studied, taught, and practiced Historical European Martial Arts, working directly with medieval and Renaissance treatises on swordsmanship, polearms, and battlefield combat. I have trained lite HEMA fencers, actors, reenactors and Musical artists, and I have spent a good part of my life trying to understand not how war looks, but how it feels.
This novel does not aim to recreate a specific historical period, nor does it follow real events. Its world is fictional, its nations invented. Yet the way men fight, command, fear, hesitate, endure, and die is rooted in historical reality. Battles are not contests of strength alone, but of discipline, morale, logistics, leadership, and chance. Victory is rarely clean, and courage is often inseparable from fear.
The same approach guided the political and social aspects of the story. Power is fragile. Loyalty is rarely pure. Decisions made far from the battlefield often kill more men than swords ever will.
This is not a tale of heroes untouched by doubt, nor of evil defeated once and for all. It is a story about choices made under pressure, about ambition and compromise, about the price paid by those who stand between collapsing kingdoms and rising empires.
If you are looking for shining armor and effortless victories, this may not be the book for you.
If, instead, you are interested in a grounded epic fantasy where war is brutal, politics matter, and steel is only one part of power-welcome to Malia.
- Marco Rubboli Marco Rubboli is an Italian novelist, historical fencing master, and fight choreographer.
Founder of "Sala d'Arme Achille Marozzo" School of Arms, one of Europe's largest institutions dedicated to Historical European Martial Arts, he has spent over thirty years studying and teaching medieval and Renaissance combat.
He has published numerous academic works on historical fencing and martial traditions, collaborated with theaters and universities, and worked as a fight master for stage and live performances.
His epic fantasy saga For the Crown of Steel blends political intrigue, brutal realism, and meticulously researched warfare, drawing on the same martial principles that shaped Europe's battlefields.
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