Dear reader,
I’m glad you stopped by. I hope you’re ready to try a new author?
Why should I read books by Rune S. Nielsen?
Here are a few quotes from various reviews of The Doomsayer Prince (Omnibus Edition) and A Company of Adventurers:
“…had me hooked from the first page, and kept me hooked all the way through.”
“A GRIPPING READ WITH A CLIFF FOR A CONCLUSION!”
“World-class epic fantasy”
“I LOVED THIS BOOK”
“A DEFINITE MUST READ”
“…it totally fulfills this ambition, and in a way I particularly loved.“
You’ll have a great time visiting the fantasy worlds created by Rune S. Nielsen.
I’m convinced! Where should I start?
Begin by reading The Doomsayer Prince (Omnibus Edition) or A Company of Adventurers. Which one depends on your taste…
The other one is fast-paced and full of…
Can I trust that you’ll finish writing both series?
Sure you can.
I began writing fantasy in 2018, published my first novel in 2020, and regularly published new ones (see the list below.)
I have a good track record and intend to keep writing and publishing books.
What else can I do on this site?
Read this if you want to know more about the ideas that I had when I began writing my first novel.
You can buy books and merch in the shop. And please sign up for my free yearly newsletter plus a quick notification when I publish a new book.
Or keep reading to find out more.
Best regards,
Rune S. Nielsen
NOVELS BY RUNE S. NIELSEN
Rune S. Nielsen’s epic/high fantasy debut novel, The Doomsayer Prince was published in 2020.
This was the original cover. The author liked it but wanted to draw attention to the characters. The current cover is shown earlier on this page.
The original layout included hand drawn maps and images by the author. They are still used today.
In 2022 Doomsayer Prince was re-released as two separate 600-page books: The Doomsayer Prince and The Vulture Sentinel (the original version is now called the omnibus edition.)
A third novel, A Company of Adventurers, was written during the Covid lockdown and published in December 2021. This was the first novel in the Tales of Kjeldale Series (the second and last book in the series is in the works.)
A roleplaying game set in the world of the Artifact War is also in the works (no release date is set.)
In 2022 Rune S. Nielsen released the third book in the Artifact War Series The Arch of the Zhi’el. And in 2024 the latest book in the series, Shattered Age, was published.
LIST OF NOVELS
Epic/high fantasy
The Doomsayer Prince, The Artifact War Series Book One
The Vulture Sentinel, The Artifact War Series Book Two
The Arch of the Zhi’el, The Artifact War Series Book Three
Shattered Age, The Artifact War Series Book Four
And two books combined into one:The Doomsayer Prince, Omnibus Edition
(combining the first two books in the series)Sword & Sorcery/epic fantasy
A Company of Adventurers, Tales of Kjeldale Series Book One
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
My love of fantasy began early on when my mother introduced me to The Lord of The Rings. At the same time, my father told me stories about history and archeology, focusing on ancient battles, castle sieges, and Vikings. Later on, in high school, I discovered roleplaying games, and really got into that hobby.
When the time came for me to write my first novel, The Doomsayer Prince, I immediately picked the epic/high fantasy subgenre.
As a reader, I love the classic epic series and there are several on my Top 20 fantasy authors of all time list as well as modern epic fantasy novels.
Writing epic fantasy is an undertaking, and the worldbuilding alone takes a long time (and is ever-expanding.) But I enjoy adding depth and nuance to the world and fiddling with character arcs. Also, I already had a great idea in the drawer and an urge to write it.
Facts about Rune S. Nielsen
Born Rune Schiermer Nielsen on the 16th of January 1970 in the city of Skive in Jutland, Denmark. Began writing articles in high school (he even got paid for some of them) and later earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism. Rune S. Nielsen has worked for a number of companies and institutions including the EU Parliament, Kanal 2, Jubii, Microsoft, and the Carlsberg Group.
He lives in Denmark in a house share with his wife, their cat the heroically fluffy Mr. Muffin, and his best friend and the friend’s family. When he’s not writing about imaginary kingdoms or dreaming up characters, Rune enjoys walks around the nearby lakes.
FUTURE PLANs
Rune S. Nielsen is currently working on a number of projects, including creating book covers for other authors and interviewing authors, but dedicates most of his time to writing. He is working on the fourth book in The Artifact War Series titled Shattered Age, the Doomsayer roleplaying game, and the sequel to A Company of Adventurers titled Harbingers of Twilight.
Where to begin reading
It depends on your taste.
If you like a fast pace and a quicker read, begin with A Company of Adventurers. You can read through that in a few days (it’s around 300 pages,) and though it’s the first in a series it can be read on its own. Sword and sorcery meet epic fantasy. It reads like a sword and sorcery novel but the series has an epic-scope plot (which will be more apparent, once the sequel comes out.)
Suppose you like epic fantasy with grand plots and love that the setting is thought through and differs from other stuff out there. In that case, I recommend beginning with the Doomsayer Prince. Since there are several versions, and you might not know which to pick, I’d pick the eBook if it must be cheap, and if you want to indulge yourself (or give it as a gift) I’d pick the two-part version in paperback as you get the maps in larger detail than the eBook, pretty fonts. I would pick the part one and part two paperbacks over the omnibus edition and the hardcover versions, as they are actually easier to read and cheaper, too.
RUNE’s Creative Sides
Rune S. Nielsen is an indie writer who not only writes but gets involved in every part of the book-selling and book-creation process. From doing his own marketing to doing the layout and book cover design. He participates in book fairs, helps authors for free, and draws his own maps and vignettes.
How does he help other authors?
He’s put all his self-publishing secrets into a free guide that you can simply download and use, and he does interviews with authors (also a free service.)
Reach out if you need help or would like to be interviewed.
DOOMSAYER ROLEPLAYING GAME
Based on the World of the Artifact War series
Great deals
Rune S. Nielsen, 2023.
Rune S. Nielsen in his brother’s garden, 2015.
Interviews
Rune S. Nielsen likes to interview his fellow authors (it’s a free service.)
Rune has interviewed many very popular and interesting authors such as Mark Lawrence (who’s sold millions of fantasy books,) multiple award winning author L. James Rice, SPBFO winner Olivia Atwater, and a ton of other great fantasy authors like Andrew D. Meredith, Christopher Clargo, Kristin Gleeson, Martin Owton, W.D. Kilpack III.
Rune does the cover design for all his novels, and helps other authors for free…yes, he gives his secrets away in this free guide.
Rune 2006.
What I did before becoming a writer
As a child, I wanted to draw and write superhero comic books. As a teenager, I wrote magazine news and reviews about games and computers. In my twenties, I went to university and got a bachelor’s degree in journalism. Specializing in TV and culture journalism.
Childhood
Dreaming up stories goes all the way back to my childhood. Growing up at the edge of a town between a farm, forest, and the army base (where my father worked,) I discovered secret places to dream up stories, and I plan to never stop.
Youth
During my teenage years, I fell in love with fantasy paperbacks imported from the UK and was amazed at how cheap they were compared to the translated versions we got in Denmark. Early on, I loved the Fighting Fantasy series, and from there quickly progressed to roleplaying games.
Rune 2013.
Work
As a journalist, I started out as a lowly intern, working at an EU communications department in Luxembourg. Then did local news on Danish TV (on Kanal 2.) Became the (only) editor of a small local newspaper, Ballerup Weekend, in suburbian Copenhagen. From there I became editor-in-chief at the biggest Danish website at the time Jubii (the “Danish Yahoo” if you like.) Then to Microsoft, as a web editor at MSN, making this the second time I worked for the biggest Danish website.
My last job before becoming a writer was in a communication role at Carlsberg, the world's third-largest brewery group. For ten years I worked in the international headquarter, dealing with corporate communications.
Today
I live near several lakes in a cozy house-share with my wife, our fluffy Ragdoll cat, Mr. Muffin, and my best friend and his family. When I’m not busy writing, I enjoy fantasy card games, and the other stuff in my review section (I seldom have time to update it. These long novels don’t write themselves).
About this website
I hope you will immerse yourself in my work and thoughts on this site. As I can’t help myself I review other people’s hard work in the reviews section, not out of a desire to criticize but to tell you about the things I enjoy. I ONLY review stuff I enjoy.
Image use and copyright
The photography on this site is copyrighted respectively:
Alexander Trolle, Rune Schiermer Nielsen, and Stine Schiermer. Maps on this site are copyrighted and created by: Rune Schiermer Nielsen (freehand drawing mostly, and one created with Inkarnate.) The drawings on this site are copyrighted respectively: John Kim or Rune Schiermer Nielsen or a paid-for artificially created imagery. I also use free fantasy images from Pixabay.com. Thank you, to those who created and uploaded those like JAKO5D, thommas68, 8385, Prettysleepy2, Mysticsartdesign & KELLEPICS. Other images are given to me by authors and competition judges whom I interview. These are used exclusively in the two interview sections.