Slave to Magic Books in Order

Slave to Magic is a two-book branch of Donald Wigboldy’s wider Tales of Alus setting. It begins with Slaves to Magic and continues in The Hunter’s Path, placing its story in the same broad fantasy world as the Battle Mage books while following a separate route through it.

Alus is a world where magic is never only decorative. Wizards, mages, magical creatures, military forces, and political power all shape who has freedom, safety, and influence. That larger backdrop gives this short series its stakes, even when the action moves away from the best-known characters and conflicts of the main Tales of Alus run.

The title tells you that power comes with a cost.

The two books are best approached as a connected story. Slaves to Magic sets up the arc and introduces the situation at its center. The Hunter’s Path continues it, so readers will get the clearest sense of the characters’ pressures and the consequences of earlier choices by reading them in that order.

Like the other Alus novels, this series belongs to a setting with old wars, dangerous magic, divided loyalties, and people who cannot assume the rules will protect them. The larger world has room for wizards and soldiers, but it also makes space for characters whose lives are controlled by stronger people or by forces they do not fully understand.

That makes the series feel more focused than a kingdom-spanning war story.

Readers can expect fantasy adventure with magic at the center of the problem, plus the kind of travel, danger, and hard decisions that run through Wigboldy’s Alus books. The connection to the larger setting means longtime Alus readers will recognize the world’s basic ingredients, while the separate sequence offers a shorter entry point than the sixteen-book main series.

Start with Slaves to Magic. It establishes the premise and is the necessary lead-in to The Hunter’s Path. Readers new to Alus can begin here, though those who want the widest view of the setting may prefer to first read The High King, The Emperor’s Shadow War, and Battle Mage.