Houndstooth: The Complete Series
(2025)(A book in the Houndstooth series)
An omnibus of novels by Travis M Riddle
The entire critically acclaimed epic fantasy series, together in one convenient collection.
Booknest 2020 finalist for best self-published fantasy and SPFBO 2021 semi-finalist.
"What happens when you take Redwall, age it several hundred years into a grungy dystopian industrialized kingdom, then stir in crime syndicates, an inscrutable immortal king, and high-stakes spiderback races. It's one of the weirdest and most entertaining books I've read all year." - John Bierce, bestselling author of Mage Errant and More Gods Than Stars
Book 1: Flesh Eater
Branded as a Flesh Eater, Coal is on the run from Palace Stingers: soldiers tasked with tracking down those who have consumed flesh and locking them away in specialized prisons.
After a year of avoiding capture and struggling to scrape by working odd jobs for a local crime lord, Coal is growing desperate. He learns of someone in the city's underbelly who can erase his record, but her services don't come cheap.
Seeing no other option, he enters a spiderback race with a grand prize valuable enough to pay for his fresh start. But he's not the only one after the prize, and Coal is about to find out exactly how far he's willing to go to win.
Book 2: Mother Pig
The Houndstooth has forever loomed over Ruska. A towering black tree with indestructible bark, it seals away powerful dark magic. But its bark is cracking and this magic is leaking, threatening to extinguish all life in the valley.
Six individuals are infected with this foul magic, imbued with unnatural abilities called Blights. Coal is their final recruit, tasked by the immortal Dirt King to track down ancient artifacts that can seal the Houndstooth and restore balance to Ruska. As the Blighted venture through the kingdom, they realize its condition is worse than they feared. They must tangle with cults, navigate through melting forests, and fight hordes of grotesque beasts warped by the Houndstooth's magic.
Ruska's fate rests on their shoulders, but are they already too late to save it?
Book 3: Dirt King
After unthinkable sacrifices, the Blighted have finally acquired all six ancient artifacts needed to re-seal the Houndstooth, keeping its dark energy at bay to save Ruska.
But everything they were told was a lie.
With Coal's newfound knowledge, they must now risk everything to reach the Dirt King's impenetrable Palace and attempt to undo centuries of turmoil that he has wrought upon the kingdom. If they fail, Ruska is doomed to wither away until only the Houndstooth itself is left.
But the immortal king possesses all of their magical abilities and more, making him the most powerful person in the entire kingdom. Do Coal and the others have what it takes to stop him, or is this cycle destined to continue until Ruska crumbles?
"Travis Riddle is currently the most original fantasy writer in the genre." - The Speculative Faction, on Flesh Eater
Genre: Fantasy
Booknest 2020 finalist for best self-published fantasy and SPFBO 2021 semi-finalist.
"What happens when you take Redwall, age it several hundred years into a grungy dystopian industrialized kingdom, then stir in crime syndicates, an inscrutable immortal king, and high-stakes spiderback races. It's one of the weirdest and most entertaining books I've read all year." - John Bierce, bestselling author of Mage Errant and More Gods Than Stars
Book 1: Flesh Eater
Branded as a Flesh Eater, Coal is on the run from Palace Stingers: soldiers tasked with tracking down those who have consumed flesh and locking them away in specialized prisons.
After a year of avoiding capture and struggling to scrape by working odd jobs for a local crime lord, Coal is growing desperate. He learns of someone in the city's underbelly who can erase his record, but her services don't come cheap.
Seeing no other option, he enters a spiderback race with a grand prize valuable enough to pay for his fresh start. But he's not the only one after the prize, and Coal is about to find out exactly how far he's willing to go to win.
Book 2: Mother Pig
The Houndstooth has forever loomed over Ruska. A towering black tree with indestructible bark, it seals away powerful dark magic. But its bark is cracking and this magic is leaking, threatening to extinguish all life in the valley.
Six individuals are infected with this foul magic, imbued with unnatural abilities called Blights. Coal is their final recruit, tasked by the immortal Dirt King to track down ancient artifacts that can seal the Houndstooth and restore balance to Ruska. As the Blighted venture through the kingdom, they realize its condition is worse than they feared. They must tangle with cults, navigate through melting forests, and fight hordes of grotesque beasts warped by the Houndstooth's magic.
Ruska's fate rests on their shoulders, but are they already too late to save it?
Book 3: Dirt King
After unthinkable sacrifices, the Blighted have finally acquired all six ancient artifacts needed to re-seal the Houndstooth, keeping its dark energy at bay to save Ruska.
But everything they were told was a lie.
With Coal's newfound knowledge, they must now risk everything to reach the Dirt King's impenetrable Palace and attempt to undo centuries of turmoil that he has wrought upon the kingdom. If they fail, Ruska is doomed to wither away until only the Houndstooth itself is left.
But the immortal king possesses all of their magical abilities and more, making him the most powerful person in the entire kingdom. Do Coal and the others have what it takes to stop him, or is this cycle destined to continue until Ruska crumbles?
"Travis Riddle is currently the most original fantasy writer in the genre." - The Speculative Faction, on Flesh Eater
Genre: Fantasy
Used availability for Travis M Riddle's Houndstooth: The Complete Series