Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Wizard Lord | 2006 | Lawrence Watt-Evans | Buy |
| 2 | The Ninth Talisman | 2007 | Lawrence Watt-Evans | Buy |
| 3 | The Summer Palace | 2008 | Lawrence Watt-Evans | Buy |
The Annals of the Chosen is set in a world called the Barokan, where the Wizard Lord holds immense magical power over the land. To prevent tyranny, eight ordinary people are chosen to carry magical talents that, when combined, can defeat the Wizard Lord. The catch is that the Chosen only act when the Wizard Lord goes bad, and deciding when that line has been crossed is never simple.
The Wizard Lord introduces Breaker, a young man who accepts the role of the Chosen Swordsman. When the current Wizard Lord starts behaving strangely, Breaker must figure out whether the lord has truly become a Dark Lord or if the situation is more complicated. The Ninth Talisman and The Summer Palace continue the story as the political situation in Barokan grows more tangled with each book.
Watt-Evans uses the series to ask questions about power, accountability, and the difficulty of making moral judgments when the facts are unclear. The Chosen are not a team of superheroes; they are regular people with one extraordinary ability each, and they do not always agree on what to do. This makes for a more thoughtful kind of fantasy than the usual good-versus-evil setup.