6: The Hounds of Harujin - novel excerpt

Join indie author Jason Shannon as he narrates a sample chapter from his magnum opus, The Hounds of Harujin. The Hounds of Harujin is a 1,200 page epic of global conquest and a neo-Mongol Empire. Join dozens of characters as they navigate this post-apocalyptic hellscape - the crown prince who gave up his birthright for a desert monastery, the vigilante assassin, the underground arms dealer, the three-breasted concubine twirling the khan around her little finger, and the sixteen-year-old girl struggling to find her way in a Mongol-dominated world: First, there was Attila, who savaged Rome and committed genocide from Asia Minor to Gaul. He was a Mongol, who wandered in from the east, and took up the sword for gold, girls and glory. Then came Genghis, the founder of the nation, who surged outwards from the steppe and wreaked annihilation across two continents. He was a Mongol, who made graveyards of China and the Middle East and left his seed in half the women of Eurasia. Then came Tamerlane, who swirled out of Samarkand like a whirlwind, leaving towers of human skulls and a tidal wave of blood enough to drown an army – and their horses. He was a Mongol, that butchered from India to the shores of Europe, and terrified the Middle East for a half millennium with his curse.... Then came Harujin, who, on the crest of an energy crisis and economic collapse, raised his scimitar like a standard, and charged his horses outwards from Mongolia to usher in the new world epoch.... In Australia, the khan’s nephew is assassinated by roadside phantoms. But the khan is more concerned with the chests of his concubines than with Australian dissidence or family outrage. The Mad Queen of Queensland is livid at the death of her son, tensions are mounting between the metropolitan heir apparent and the older, war hardened brother. In the desert, the khan’s reclusive daughter cultivates a reputation for murdering her husbands. A young woman is offered for the khan’s growing harem, but finds herself the tool of something much bigger. And as the feuding family tensions come to a head, the khan is forced to reach out to his estranged son, and bring him back from a Buddhist monastery to solve a murder.... ​ Jason Shannon is an indie Canadian author of science fiction and more. He has published 5 novels - The Zimmer Insurgency, The Hounds of Harujin, The Moon Panther, Rain's Agenda, and The Ballad of Tumelun Tombs - as well as several short stories. Visit www.jasonmshannon.com to read the short stories, as well as novel excerpts, or for links to download/buy. All novels are available in print and ebook. Audiobooks in production now. The audio edition of The Zimmer Insurgency will be out in June 2023. Download the PDF https://www.jasonmshannon.com/thehoundsofharujin Buy my ebooks https://www.jasonmshannon.com/store Follow my social media @harujinshounds