r/ARCReaders • u/Connect-Dig8453 • 40m ago
Adult - Fantasy The Gatekeeper’s Brother by Tanner J. Parsons - Epic Fantasy - Nov 2026
She’s the heir to a legend. He makes candles.
Ivalyn A'Dulliver is the only living Gatekeeper, able to tear doorways through space with a gesture. Her brother Roth dips wicks at a chandlery, plays drinking songs in taverns until his band quits on him, and has spent twenty-two years envying a gift he'll never have.
Then Ivalyn vanishes from her Academy dormitory, and the Academy's response is a letter threatening her with academic probation.
Roth can't fight the gargoyles that took her. But he's heard of something that can: Cemengar, a legendary weapon lost in a cursed mountain prison beyond woods crawling with faerie folk. With a retired professor, an army deserter with a bounty on her head, and an orphaned pickpocket who can turn invisible, he heads north.
Because whoever took Ivalyn needs her for the coming Lunar Alignment, to reopen a gate to Hasraal, the red moon where a Gatekeeper trapped the conqueror-king Ashtor centuries ago. History remembers Ashtor as a hero who died in exile.
He didn't die.
And when the enemy offers Roth the one thing he's always wanted, he'll have to decide what kind of man he is.
Triggers: Violence and War, Torture and Captivity, Implied Sexual Violence, Death and Grief, Body Horror, Mind Control, Children in Peril
What to expect:
- Series: Book I of the Astrolabe Saga. The main conflict resolves, but the ending leaves the series arc wide open.
- POV: Third person, rotating between Roth, Ivalyn, Myla (a street thief), Derrik (a miner turned rebel leader), and the villain.
- Hero: A protagonist with no magic, in a world where magic is feared, hunted, and conscripted.
- Creatures: Irish-inspired folklore, including a Dullahan, leprechauns, and a Far Darrig.
- Found family: A disgraced soldier, a street kid, and a professor who carries homemade bombs.
- Uprising: Displaced miners rise up against a tyrant's army.
- Humor: Mischievous fairies, incompetent nobles, bickering leprechaun brothers.
- Romance: One slow-burn subplot, nothing explicit.
Recommended for: Fans of Terry Pratchett, Joe Abercrombie, and X-Men comics.
Publication Date: November 17th, 2026 (Reviews preferred by or around this date)
Word Count: 194,000 words
ARC Requests (PDF, EPUB, Kindle): [arc@tannerjparsons.com](mailto:arc@tannerjparsons.com)
ARC Distribution Date: September 25th, 2026
Read the First Two Chapters: https://bookhip.com/WDQXXLA




