Eskkar is the central figure of Sam Barone’s Eskkar Saga, a series of historical novels set in the Fertile Crescent around 3158 BC. Once a wandering mercenary and outcast from a steppe nomad clan, Eskkar sold his sword to survive among the settled villagers his former people called “dirt eaters.”
His life changed when the village elder of Orak ordered him to prepare the settlement’s defenses against an approaching barbarian horde. No village had ever turned back the ferocious horsemen. Given a young slave named Trella as a helpmate, Eskkar discovered in her a partner with the political cunning and perception he lacked. Together they not only repelled the invasion but transformed Orak into the walled city of Akkad.
Across six novels and two companion stories in the Eskkar & Bracca series, Eskkar evolves from rootless fighter to empire builder. Sam Barone draws on the real history of early Mesopotamian urbanization to tell a story about two outsiders who changed the course of civilization between the rivers.