The Oblivion Gates

The Oblivion Gates is a character-driven dark science-fantasy epic, built around Arthur C. Clarke’s famous premise: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
The Oblivion Gates by Vale Wintry. Mango Hill Books. Cover of the first volume of the dark science fantasy series Chronicles of Neiuar. Cover depicting Solanya and her alter ego in the form of a jaguar. Background featuring an abandoned space base and dense forest to symbolise the duality of worldbuilding.
Chronicles of Neiuar Book 1

THE OBLIVION GATES

✨ Blurb
An ancient barrier. Two worlds. One lie.
Good and Evil are but two versions of the same story.

Faithful to a millenary alliance, the elemental shape-shifting warriors known as the Wardens watch over the border between the realm of Men and the lands cursed by a plague now lost to legend. For over four centuries, neither the infected nor enemy armies have appeared on the horizon.

When a multitude of exhausted exiles reaches the Barrier seeking sanctuary, Solanya rebels against the Gathering’s blind refusal. But in a world forged by shadows, mercy is a dangerous gamble. She ventures into their camps, only to find something unexpected. What is the unknown artifact that young Nekrem calls a key-device? And who are the beings hunting him, willing to do anything to reclaim it?

Torn between the kin of Men and the kin of the Wardens—an outcast to both as a half-blood—Solanya will discover that the line between Good and Evil does not run along the walls of the Barrier.
And she already crossed it in her mother’s womb, while clutching the hand of her twin, the dark mirror of her soul.

✨ Is this series right for me?

If you enjoy narratives that challenge your assumptions, reward attentive reading, and center complex, flawed characters over clear moral lines, you'll be in the right place.

THE OBLIVION GATES delivers:

  • Shapeshifters with actual consequences
  • Magic vs ancient alien technology
  • Morally (dark) grey characters
  • Found family that shatters
  • Compassion weaponized against the hero
  • Multi-POV including the villains
  • Epic worldbuilding with sci-fi bones
  • Dark fantasy that doesn't flinch
  • Enemies forced into alliance
  • Sibling dynamics (toxic edition)
  • No chosen one. No prophecy. Just consequences.

At its core, The Oblivion Gates is a story about the blurred line between magic and technology, nature and science, good and evil. The story deliberately plays with familiar tropes and reader expectations, then subverts them.

Content / Trigger Warnings:

  • Explicit violence.
  • On-page Death of Major Characters (including a child).
  • Body Horror / Transformation
  • Trauma, grief and loss.
  • Morally complex characters.
  • Taboo/forbidden relationship between siblings.
  • Coarse language.
  • Emotional Manipulation / Gaslighting
  • War Themes / Military Violence
  • Betrayal / Trust Issues

An ancient barrier. Two worlds. One lie.

The Oblivion Gates is the first book in the Chronicles of Neiuar series, a multi-POV dark science-fantasy saga that plunges readers into a universe of adventure, violent passions, and moral conflict. Good and Evil intertwine and blur in a world where magic seems to have triumphed over science, and the very foundations of human civilization stand upon a lie.

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Mango Hill Books. Pencil-style image depicting the character Skoll, from Vale Wintry's Chronicles of Neiuar series.Mango Hill Books. Pencil-style image depicting the shape-shifting jaguar character Solomir, from Vale Wintry's Neiuar Chronicles series.Mango Hill Books. Pencil-style image depicting the character Tiara, from Vale Wintry's Chronicles of Neiuar series.

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The Witch of the Mists by Vale Wintry. Mango Hill Books. Cover of the prequel novella to the dark science fantasy series Chronicles of Neiuar.

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