The Crystal Realm Krytor's Return

Two Worlds. One Enemy. A young boy's amazing journey into a lost subterranean world. Hanging around his neck is the only hope for all mankind. In an epic urban fantasy, the first book of the Crystal Realm trilogy will take you to a world like no other. Nathan, a 17 year old boy in possession of a mysteriously powerful crystal pendant and being pursued by a rogue leader of the Ku Klux Klan, flees through the massive underground labyrinth of the Mammoth Caves in an effort to save his life. Plunging deep underground, he discovers an incredible race of people living secretly under our world. Hailed as either their prophesied hero or the harbinger of great doom, Nathan becomes embroiled in a battle against an ancient enemy bent on the destruction of their world, Thuromest, and of Nathan's home above. Nathan’s pendant is known as the Key of Knowledge and in order to get home, he must somehow find a way to use its powers. Unaware that the Key works only by faith, Nathan’s situation is desperate. With almost no options left, he must somehow find the faith within himself to master the power of the key, elude the leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and destroy the most powerful creature this world has ever seen. There is only one problem. Nathan doesn't believe in faith! This is a fantasy book with a difference - there are no elves, dwarfs, ogres, wizards, fairies, werewolves, vampires or trolls! Every character in this remarkable book springs from the author's imagination with a touch of historical content that is designed to imerse the reader in an adventure like no other. If you are looking for something different, something that will have you guessing until the end, join Nathan and the friends he gathers throughout his journey into the spellbinding world of Thuromest.

Christopher James Ballantyne was born in Kabiningie, South Australia, which is now just a railway station in the Barossa Valley. Chris is married and has four children, two boys, and two girls. He lives with his wife, Lise, and two of their children, in the top end of Australia where he works for the Charles Darwin University as a Lecturer in the School of Nursing. It was while Chris was working as a nurse the small Aboriginal community of Yuendumu that the idea of the Crystal Realm was born. The early drafts were typed in 1996 using a Word Perfect program and a 'massively powerful' 386 computer! Due to a new addition to the family and a career move to Tasmania, only four chapters were written and the manuscript was shelved until one day in early 2008 when Chris managed to convert the original Word Perfect file to a Microsoft Word file and, as they say, the rest is history! Now, after three years researching and writing, The Crystal Realm, Krytor's Return is published. Chris's other interests, besides nursing and teaching, are fossicking and gemology, chess, caving, gaming on the PC, and of course reading. His favorite authors are J.R.R Tolkien, Asimov, Heinlein, and Donaldson and anything that is epic! His love for caving and caves of all kinds provided the impetus for the main character's entry into the fantasy world of the Crystal Realm. Chris's sincere hope is for anyone who reads the story to enjoy it for what it is: an adventure and an opportunity for those who love to read to find themselves lost in the pages of an epic urban fantasy.