Enter the World of Califia...

The Califia Sagas begin with The Bear Rebellion of Califia, a complete novella that introduces the reader to Barlowe, an alchemist and spy-for-hire, and the magical world of Califia.

It’s 1845 and Captain John Barlowe is under a death warrant, has an alcoholic pixie for a partner, and on a mission to a magical island in the Far West.

Oh, and his name isn’t John Barlowe. 

And he isn’t a Captain.

That isn’t his biggest secret.

Excerpt:

I woke up in a sweat.

The sheets were twisted around my body like I’d been wrestling with banshees throughout the night. Perhaps I had. Moonlight shone through the window, and I could dimly see an Apothecary sign hanging outside. My room was in the front of the building above the workroom, overlooking the street. My partner Calamity’s room was on the same floor but by the back stairs. She liked the privacy of being able to come and go at all hours of the night. 

Usually coming and going from bars, if truth be told.

It had been a month since we’d bought this Apothecary in the town of Yerba Buena, and we’d settled in like old hands. Found some side employment from a nice chap, Scrimshaw, who ran the shadier side of town. Business was good, with the wealthy citizens of Yerba Buena that visited us for their powders and elixirs. All in all, a month well spent. So why was I waking up in a sweat?

Keeping my secrets from Calamity was gnawing at me. At some point, I would have to share my secret mission in Yerba Buena. At some point, I’d have to divulge what I really did in the Texas Republic, embedded in the United States Army. What we did to magic creatures like Calamity. And, at some point, maybe even tell her my real name.

In this thrilling second volume of the Bear Rebellion trilogy, spy-for-hire John Barlowe must unite the ancient magical peoples of the Isla de Califia to stop the tyrannical Major Fremont from destroying all magic folk. As Barlowe leads a desperate resistance from Mount Shastice alongside his pixie partner Calamity Jayne and the mysterious Merri Nighdottir, he discovers that his own powers may be the key to saving the Isla - or ensuring its destruction.

Excerpt:

The night sky over Lake Da’aw was a patchwork of stars and constellations, forming and reforming into shapes I conjured out of my imagination. A bear. A flying horse. A dog sleeping on the ground.

The last image shook me out of my reverie. A sleeping dog? What the hell constellation is that? I looked up at the group of stars that I had been pondering moments before. No, not so much a sleeping dog but a badger, crouching, ready to leap. Yes, much better, I thought, stretching out my aching knees and standing up. Enough of this sitting around “sleeping” nonsense. Time to badger-up, as my Uncle Nick would say.

Actually, I very much doubt that my Uncle would say that at all. An extremely learned man, a graduate of Oxford like myself, he would certainly know all about badgers. And he was a man of action, a spy-for-hire who had served in some of Europe’s elite fighting forces and then invited me to join the same secret society that had trained him in the martial and alchemical arts. But he was too much of a gentleman to say anything as droll as “badger up.” His loss, I thought as I walked back from the shore of the lake to my tent.

In the stunning finale to the Califia trilogy, Keith Bran returns readers to his mesmerizing alternate history where magic and manifest destiny collide in the town of Yerba Buena

Following the earth-shattering revelations of "The Bear Rebellion of Califia" and the magical revolution that rocked "The Shastice Uprising," Captain John Barlowe finds himself at the center of the conflict that will determine the fate of the entire Isla de Califia. With the mysterious power of the Oro unleashed and alliances shifting like the island's infamous fog, Barlowe must finally confront the secrets of his own dual identity as he's torn between duty and loyalty to the magical folk he's come to call friends.

With the Bear Rebellion in full swing and ancient powers awakening beneath the island, Barlowe's final adventure weaves together the threads of betrayal, redemption, and sacrifice established in the previous novels. As magical folk face extinction and human ambitions run unchecked, the battle for the soul of Califia reaches its spectacular conclusion.

Excerpt:

      The smells had become almost unbearable at the Internment Camp, the result of hundreds of magical creatures and human sympathizers crammed together for months in the hastily-built encampment. Filth filled the icy streets that ran in between the wooden huts that housed the so-called “residents” of the camp. Residents but really prisoners.

     The ‘Termnents, as they were known by the prisoners, had been erected under the orders of Major John Fremont, the self-proclaimed Protector of the Independent Republic of Califia. Using a magical object, the Oro, Fremont had seized power of the Califia from the Mexican government, ostensibly to support the United States settlers who had made their way to the Isla. But Fremont had declared Califia to be an independent country, set free by his Bear Rebellion which was commemorated in the flags that now flew over the towns across Califia. A brown bear, on its hind legs and teeth bared; a star like that of the Republic of Texas; and a bloody red swath at the bottom. One such flag flew at the center of the Internment Camp, flapping in the breeze.