A young civilization is turning the corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from their deepest past.
Title: Tales of the Ocean City Series
Author: Christopher Kaufman
Pages: Battle in the Sky 48 pp. & Descent Into the Abyss 63 pp.
Genre: Classic Epic Fantasy
A young civilization is turning the
corner into the future, but first they must face a terrible enemy from
their deepest past – THE VORM.
The main characters are a young man
named Harl’ut and his lifelong companion Vispushin – who is a perIanth, a
kind of telepathic pegasus. Join them on this epic adventure as they
lead a group of young warriors into the heart of the Vorm Hive.
Book One: Battle In The Sky is the
first of five books which comprise the opening series of this epic tale.
Here, Harl’ut and Vispushin and The Princess Bryn’lynn, engage in
desperate battle over the southern plain with savage Vorm warriors. You
will be uplifted by the passionate and thrilling conclusion of the first
installment of this fantasy adventure.
In Book Two: Descent Into The Abyss,
Harl’ut recovers from his harrowing adventure from Book One: Battle In
The Sky. He walks through the streets of The Ocean City, visits the
Sculpture Garden and his friend, Elá, the bard, and engages in exciting
training games with warrior/mentor, Calanctus. Then the story takes you
down the throat of the vast volcano, Pla’than’taa, once worshipped as a
god, where Harl’ut enacts a deadly initiation ritual, confronts the
barbaric past of his people and battles a terrifying monster.
Pick up your copies at https://kaufmantales.com/.
Here’s what readers are saying about Tales of the Ocean City series!
“A collage of vibrant
images adorns the pages of Tales Of The Ocean City, treating readers to
more than a simple fantasy narrative. Well-chosen colors and designs add
emotive elements and offer thoughtful reflections of the unfolding
battle sequence, creating an intensely immersive experience. Matching
the feel of the imagery, the text includes abundant use of descriptive,
almost poetic prose, which adds vigor to the exciting storyline. I found
the overall experience to be hypnotic, both in the book’s vivid
presentation and its innovation. Mixing qualities from graphic novels,
abstract art, classic fantasy, and creative fiction, Christopher
Kaufman’s book is an imaginative adventure that is sure to engage your
senses.”
— David Korson for Readers’ Favorite
Book Trailer
Book Excerpt
“Vispushin! Aloft! ” cried Harl’ut.
With a thrust of her wings, the white pegasus shot upwards through billowing clouds. Harl’ut stood with his arms held out, balancing on her back. They burst into vast heights, the realm of Kurl’wra, the morning sun, whose powerful beams illumined iridescent mist on his golden skin. Far below, the ocean roared and thundered.
Vispushin reached the pinnacle of her high arc.
“Now…” she thought to him.
The pegasus hovered and Harl’ut dove backward from her haunches. In a swan dive, he clove through tiers of frothing clouds. He used his chest and arms to glide in a spiral through the planet Tir’whol’s thick atmosphere. He reached the cool misty air just below the clouds, jack-knifed and straightened, and sliced right into the churning ocean currents.
Dark purples and greens suffused his eyes as he penetrated cold shadowy depths. He arched his
back, frog-kicked and drifted lazily up towards a ceiling of shimmering blue light.
He felt rough tickles on his skin as he passed through a multitude of bulbous purple sea stars. A powerful current buffeted him as he reached the water just below the surface.
“Here!” Vispushin’s voice shimmered in his mind like watery light. With a vigorous kick, Harl’ut vaulted through crashing waves and snagged the sharp hoof of his bond-mate.
“Aloft!” he cried again.
Blazing glare trails blinded him. He grasped the white-gold mesh which clothed Vispushin’s supple form and clambered onto her heaving plush back as she strove upwards.
Reaching the air above the clouds once again, she settled into a steady rhythm of flight towards Ocean City!
It was time, he thought, time to join fully in the city life, The Ocean City…
Harl’ut pictured clearly in his mind the city carved from great spires of rock at the belly of a massive volcanic mountain once worshipped as the god, Pla’than’taa!
Now a vibrant city teeming with life. A place of hope, dreams and vision, where a young civilization was turning the corner into the future. A future Harl’ut yearned to be a part of.
The piercing cry of a sea-eagle shattered his thoughts, a winged shadow passed across the sun at a great height.
Harl’ut leapt to his feet, cupped his hands to his mouth and issued his characteristic call…
“Keeyaaaa!”
The giant eagle paused in its flight and answered, then turned and flew off.
– Excerpted from Tales of the Ocean City: Book 1: Battle in the Sky by Christopher Kaufman, Three Dashes Publications, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
About the Author
Christopher Kaufman is an author,
composer, presenter, illustrative artist and performer. He started
imaginative fantasy books with illustrative art at the age of nine.
During high school years he found music and attended The New Orleans
Center for The Creative Arts and went on to major in music composition
in college. He finished his schooling – earning his DMA in music
composition at Cornell University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize
Winning composers who prize his abilities as a composer.
Christopher is the type of person who
needs imaginative fantasy scenarios to get to sleep. Therefore, he
emerged from Cornell, not only with his degrees in music, but with the
full event structure for his classic epic fantasy series Tales Of The
Ocean City in his mind.
He began writing the story down in the
early 2000’s, but it did not really come to life until he developed his
home music ‘laboratory’ and started creating the music and text at the
same time. Thus books one and two of TOC came about simultaneously as
both graphically illustrated pages and effulgent audio albums filled
with cinematic epic symphonic music.
They exist now as physical books and
audio albums (that go together) and the new Video Book version. He
performs live tours with the music pouring through speakers, live
narration and the colorful pages streaming on screen – a true immersive
multi-media experience.
He also maintains his career as a
composer for the concert stage with a full body of work, from solo works
thru orchestral. He specializes as well in ‘environmental works’ which
feature soundscapes crafted from hundreds of natural sounds, live
musicians (from soloists, chamber groups and to full orchestra), videos
filled with both natural and artistic images and readings from the works
of John Muir and others.
His home page is – soundartus.com.
His author page is talesoftheoceancity.com.
His you-tube channel is SOUNDARTUS.
Visit him at Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/talesoftheoceancity.
Christopher believes in the transformative power of imagination.
“Live with imagination!”
