On the eve of his graduation from New Salem High, Thomas Scargen awakens from an all-too-real nightmare depicting his father’s mysterious disappearance. Before the boy can regain his composure and slack back into his familiar world of artifs and hologames, Thomas is torn away from his home and hastily ushered into a secret world of magic. He quickly begins to discover his magical potential and grasp his manifesting abilities, but he lacks perhaps the most important component: control. Yareli Chula, Spirit Summoner and member of The Council of Mages, has been dispatched to recover the boy and bring him to The Council. There he can find the discipline he needs and the answers he seeks, but getting him there alive will be anything but easy. Yareli is not the only one searching for the Scargen boy. Along his journey, Thomas will ride atop a teleport dragon, duel a High Demon of the Depths, run with the Lions of Sirati, outfox a spirit ghost, race a vampire, and quote Shakespeare with a whiskey-swilling werewolf—all in the hope of discovering the truth about his father. This quest will be fraught with darkness and a malevolence far more unyielding than anything Thomas has come across in his fantasy books. Armed with his newly realized powers and his unlikely companions, Thomas Scargen will have to face this pervasive evil without being entirely consumed by The Shadow of the Gauntlet. "Caracciolo's sprawling, cleanly written adventure builds a rollicking tale of longing and self-discovery. Caracciolo's nonstop imaginative display is riveting. His tale zips among feverishly concocted set pieces and lovingly rendered characters. The final showdown, crafted with aplomb, whets appetites for what should be a doubly epic second volume. An impressive magical beginning for the legend of Scargen and his motley crew." - Kirkus Reviews "Fans of the Harry Potter and Tiger's Curse series will really enjoy this book. Between the mythology, future gadgets and new friends you'll meet while reading The Shadow of the Gauntlet , you'll probably never want to leave the world that Caracciolo has created."- Compulsion Reads "A book that reminds you of that joy you had watching Saturday morning cartoons where the heroes would always save the day in the coolest ways possible . . . trust me on this, you're going to be happy once that geeky adventurous feeling flows through your veins again." - Allgeektome.net Six years ago I had an idea: what if I took all the mythology and magic from various cultures from around the world and combined them into one cohesive mythos. Then take this mythos to construct a fully realized world filled with characters that represent these various cultures and their magical histories. That covered the fantasy side of it, but what would I do to add the sci-fi element? And then it came to me . . . The magic within this mythos would be explained using science. Magic users would manipulate the sub-atomic particles that make up everything in the universe. Good magic users would ask these particles to cooperate in achieving 'magic,' while evil magic users would force the particles to bend to their will. All humans would be capable of this skill with time and practice, but some would be naturally adept. The novel would be set on Earth, but in the future. This would allow me to populate the world with artifs (artificial lifeforms). I'm talking robots, people . . . a lot of them. There would be an organization that worked secretly with the governments of the world to actively suppress the use of magic through capture and elimination. They would primarily use artifs and tech to hunt down and destroy any users of magic. Their main objective would be to purposely hide the magical world from the masses. In this future, everyone wears wristcoms (wrist communicators). The wristcom would replace smartphones, home computers, game consoles, TVs, books, etc., all controlled from a holographic interface. Everything you would ever need, all conveniently on your wrist. Then we throw in aeromobiles (flying cars). We have been promised this for decades, and my book fulfills this promise. That covered the sci-fi aspect, and the idea was starting to take shape, but something was still missing. So I looked to the genres of Comics and Anime to up the ante on the action. I decided that there would be no wands in my book. Don't get me wrong, I love those books, but I wanted to take magical combat to the next level. The Mages and Necromancers in my book battle each other using various concentrated energy attacks. To put it simply:

Sci-Fi + Fantasy + a dash of Comics and Anime =  The Shadow of the Gauntlet  I'm talking robots, dragons, and fireballs shooting out of people's hands. But how do I make  The Shadow of the Gauntlet  more accessible to nongeeks? Let's be honest: robots, dragons, and fireballs definitely speak to a certain audience (me), but what about everyone else? I know what you're thinking--just add some vampires. Every