Found a stand-alone fantasy book that sounds interesting.
The Barrow by Mark Smylie is $1.99 at Amazon.
I like that it sounds like an adventure for a lot of non-typical, low level characters as opposed to the usual earth-shaking, page-spanning quest.
Warning: several of the reviews mention fairly explicit sex scenes in the book. I just bought it, so I'm not sure how serious that is.
I guess now I know why the publisher is referred to as the Randy Penguin
Quote:
When a small crew of scoundrels, would-be heroes, deviants, and ruffians discover a map that they believe will lead them to a fabled sword buried in the barrow of a long-dead wizard, they think they've struck it rich. But their hopes are dashed when the map turns out to be cursed and then is destroyed in a magical ritual. The loss of the map leaves them dreaming of what might have been, until they rediscover the map in a most unusual and unexpected place.
Stjepan Black-Heart, suspected murderer and renegade royal cartographer; Erim, a young woman masquerading as a man; Gilgwyr, brothel owner extraordinaire; Leigh, an exiled magus under an ignominious cloud; Godewyn Red-Hand, mercenary and troublemaker; Arduin Orwain, scion of a noble family brought low by scandal; and Arduin's sister Annwyn, the beautiful cause of that scandal: together they form a cross section of the Middle Kingdoms of the Known World, united by accident and dark design, on a quest that will either get them all in the history books...or get them all killed.
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