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Australia – August 21st, 2026 – In An Era in Anddemar, author Maureen B. Roberts invites readers into a vast, intricately imagined galaxy where the struggle between the enduring marriage of dark and light and its Grey enemy spans stars, worlds and dimensions.

A lifeless Greyness is infiltrating the galaxy Anddemar, unsettling Nature, dimming stars, fuelling tyranny, unleashing destruction and disrupting the ‘Great Dance’ of the Heavens. The galaxy itself is a pulsing web of communion, a seamless tapestry in which dreams, visions and solid reality interweave as one web of communal life. As the Grey threat grows, a colourful alliance – including an exiled Shapemage, wormholes that channel music and poetry, shamans, the Grail, stars, and a marooned band of Earth scientists – prepares to confront it. And weaving through it all is the exquisite love between ‘the ‘foremost of Anddemar’s knights’ and the Vidar Quain of the Dreaming.

Blending mythology, nature, astronomy, Grail lore, shamanism, music and spiritual philosophy, An Era in Anddemar portrays a realm woven together by relationships among and between stars, communities, natural and mythic beings. The tale unfolds like a tapestry with many threads, as unforgettable characters, unique modes of spiritual warfare, unexpected inversions of perspective, and a love like no other interweave into events unfolding during one galactic “Era.” Women’s esoteric Orders, citizens, knights and Guardian Powers work together to safeguard their communities, the Dreaming, and the galaxy’s cosmic network. Courage may involve wielding a sword, but it also means empathy, caring for fellow beings, and refusing to allow suffering to turn the heart Grey.

In one of the book’s more bizarre turns, English Romantic poet John Keats appears as a young knight whose poetry is used by shamans and a Trickster Guardian Power to repel the destructive Greyness. Keats was the subject of Roberts’ doctoral thesis on English Romanticism.

Literary Titan praises Roberts for building Anddemar “with remarkable conviction,” highlighting the novel’s distinctive vision, and conflict as far more than a contest between rival forces. The Greyness threatens colour, imagination, freedom and fellow feeling, resulting in dimming stars, frightened communities, wounded creatures and citizens struggling to preserve their lives. Readers’ Favorite’s 5 Star Review describes the book as a “soaring epic that reads like a myth newly dreamed into being,” adding that “fans of richly layered storytelling, elevated prose, and visionary world-building will find themselves utterly transported.”

Roberts’s elevated and richly visual prose carries readers through moonlit gardens, crystalline deserts, underwater ruins, stellar storms and Underworld landscapes. The storytelling unfolds at a contemplative pace, inviting readers to spend time within relationships, conversations and vividly realised settings, rather than simply rushing from one confrontation to the next. Literary Titan observes that the novel feels “less like a conventional adventure and more like entering a complete mythology,” where science, spiritual warfare and Romanticism have organically grown together.

Beneath its celestial journeys, amusing clashes between Earth scientists and Anddemar’s reality, battles and sacred alliances, An Era in Anddemar explores a profoundly human question: what keeps life thriving when forces of conformity, destruction and spiritual emptiness threaten to consume it? The myth’s answer is love in its many forms: romantic devotion, friendship, compassion, community, creativity, and loyalty to sacred traditions and nature. Literary Titan concludes that Roberts has created “a galaxy where beauty is a form of resistance and imagination is a sacred power,” calling An Era in Anddemar “a love song for the wild, radiant soul of life.”

This is a work not readily comparable to any other in the science fantasy, science fiction, or epic fantasy genres, though the author was deeply influenced by classic mythopoeic authors including E. R. Eddison, Lord Dunsany, Charles Williams, Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Lindsay, Mervyn Peake, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Homages to these writers are scattered throughout the book.

In order to retain full creative control, Roberts has published An Era in Anddemar under her own imprint, Vandrassian Press. “I knew a traditional publishing editor would probably slash a lot of the descriptive detail, as well as modify the elevated prose style,” she says. “I needed to stay true to the vision, rather than pander to publishing norms regarding tone, language, and narrative pacing. Anddemar bucks pretty well every current literary trend, simply because the vision demanded it.”

For readers drawn to profound spiritual exploration, compelling characters, richly detailed worlds, the interface of science and imagination, breathless Romance, Trickster-ish humour, and the poetic artistry of language, An Era in Anddemar offers an immersive mythology on a galactic scale.

Roberts’ nonfiction book, StarDreaming: Letters from a Mystic to a Science Fiction Author, is being published by Collective Ink Books [London, UK] in September 2026. Whereas An Era in Anddemar is fiction that grew from her dreams and visions, StarDreaming centres on actual letters she wrote between 1994 and 1996 to award-winning science fiction author Damien Broderick, who coined the term “virtual reality.”

About the Author

Maureen B. Roberts is a British-Australian author whose work and scholarship has encompassed literature, Jungian psychology, contemporary mythology, shamanism, ecology, astronomy, music, photography, and psychotherapy. She holds a PhD in English Literature and Jungian Psychology and also studied astronomy as part of a university Science degree.

Dr Roberts has been a recipient of two university literary Prizes: The Sir Archibald Strong Memorial Prize for Literature, and The Edith Hubbe and Harriet Cook Prize. She practiced for several decades as a depth psychotherapist before retiring to focus on fiction and nonfiction writing, and she has also worked as an editor, singer-songwriter and musician, graphic artist, and pastoral care provider.

An initiated Celtic shaman, Dr Roberts has guided spiritual retreats and Vision Quests, hosted her own radio program, and spoken regularly on ABC Radio. She has been a guest speaker at conferences and seminars run by The Mythopoeic Literature Society of Australia, The Theosophical Society, Voices Victoria [schizophrenia support network], and the C. G. Jung Society of South Australia. From 2000 to 2011, she ran Australia’s Schizophrenia Drug-free Crisis Centre, and in 2002 convened Australia’s first international conference on drug-free crisis care for psychosis.

Dr Roberts lives in a small country town near the sea, on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, where she enjoys coastal bushwalking, music jams and fire circles with friends, gardening, and creating organic healthcare products.

Media Contact
Company Name: Literary Titan
Contact Person: Vandrassian Press
Email: Send Email
Country: Australia
Website: https://www.maureenbroberts.com/