Most of this website is about the books, the metal albums, and about you, my friends. On this page, I’ll share a few things about myself.

I love epic fantasy and powerful metal. I’ve been enjoying both for many years, and in October 2023 I decided to bring them together. I will release metal albums for each of the first three novels in the Ethasar Chronicles. I plan to continue writing epic fantasy and producing music if enough readers and metal fans enjoy the results.

Before that, let’s go back in time a few years.

I started writing fantasy in 2012, and wrote a series of three novels, which I haven’t released yet. Then, in 2015, I became a father — and, between my day job and dedicating myself to my family, I had less time to write. I started a few other novels, but did not complete them.

Then, in late 2020, I decided to write a bigger, bolder, more epic series. The result is the Ethasar Chronicles.

I finished the first book, “War of the Seven”, in August 2021. Rather than releasing it right away, I decided to write the next two books as well, so that my readers don’t have to wait too long between releases. This decision paid off, as I later started producing metal albums to go with the books.

I revised each book thoroughly with the help of beta readers and professional editors. So far, “War of the Seven” has been read and enjoyed by dozens of beta readers on all continents except for Antarctica – and if you happen to know a penguin who reads epic fantasy, I’d love to hear from you!

As of January 2024, the books “War of the Seven” and “Songs of the Heroes” are complete, as are their metal albums. The third book, “Last of the Gods”, is 80% done, and I have outlined the next few books in the series. Each book will come with a metal album. I believe you’re going to love them.

… and now I have a confession to make. Brad Towers is not my real name. It is the “pen name” I have chosen as a writer.

In my other life, I have worked as a software engineer, engineering manager, and Tech leadership consultant. I joined Google in 2004, built my career there, and led the Directions group in Google Maps for four years. Fourteen years later, I left Google and switched to a part-time leadership consulting role for a major Tech company in South-East Asia, while enjoying family life and working on my books and my music.

I met my wonderful wife over two decades ago, while I was playing the guitar at a party, on the closing day of a programming competition. We have a young son and we love him dearly.

Here are some things I’m passionate about:

Fantasy / Epic Fantasy: I enjoy reading and re-reading the works of Brandon Sanderson, John Gwynne, Brent Weeks, Alec Hutson, and Sir Terry Pratchett’s amazing Discworld series. I also love the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman, and I enjoy reading a good historical fiction or mythology book once in a while.

Metal, Rock, and Epic Instrumental Music: my friends introduced me to metal in my early teens, and I grew up listening to many amazing albums from Iron Maiden and Manowar. Later, I enjoyed the music of Hammerfall, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, and Metallica (mostly the earlier albums, but they’re metal gods anyway). I also love listening to great rock bands and rockstars, including Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Meatloaf, Guns N’ Roses, and to epic instrumental music from Audiomachine and Two Steps from Hell.

Writing: I outline my novels and start writing them from Chapter 1, updating the outlines as new ideas emerge. I do extensive editing after each manuscript is complete. I work with multiple beta readers and with professional editors to make my novels the best they can be. My strengths are in plotting, building characters that are larger than life, writing powerful action scenes, and writing pretty decent dialogue. I do not write flowery descriptions and prefer to get straight to the point.

Music Production: I mainly compose and produce heavy metal and power metal songs, with the occasional ballad. I produced Ethasar’s albums with multiple instrumentalists and a variety of musical styles. I believe you will love them. To learn more about how Ethasar’s music came to be, visit this page.

Software Engineering: my love for programming began at the age of twelve, and since I loved it, I got good at it. I took part in many programming competitions during high school and college, and I generally did well. After finishing my Master’s degree in Computer Science, I joined Google as a software engineer, and grew my career there. Sadly, I haven’t programmed much since 2010, as I moved into leadership roles. I intend to teach myself programming again sometime soon, so that I can teach my son as well.

Leadership: I believe in being an authentic leader, playing to one’s strengths, encouraging your people to do the same, and optimizing for impact. The role of a leader is to make their projects and their broader organization successful, while making their people happy and helping them grow. I plan to write a couple of books on Tech leadership in the next few years, but for now I am having too much fun in the realms of epic fantasy and powerful metal.

Gaming: I grew up playing every Heroes of Might and Magic game I could get my hands on. Later on, I played various action-adventure and strategy games, and enjoyed quite a few games from the Total War series. These days, where I’m not writing or doing my Tech leadership work, I occasionally fire up the computer for a Total War Warhammer campaign. For tabletop gaming, I enjoy playing various flavors of Risk, Small World, Imperial (which I play badly), and a few other games. I played a bit of D&D years ago, though perhaps not as much as I should have.

Many of my passions have seeped into my books and my music. There’s no programming in my fantasy universe (yet), but I am definitely blending epic fantasy and powerful metal, and you may notice flavors of Warhammer and Assassin’s Creed. In addition, each book presents various leadership styles and their results, whether positive and negative. They’ve been a lot of fun to write, and I believe you’re going to love them.

For a fun quiz about me, with a free short story as its prize, go here.

What are your passions, and how many do we have in common? I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at brad at bradtowers dot com, or contact me using this form.

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The Ethasar Chronicles – upcoming releases:

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Brad Towers

Epic Fantasy and Powerful Metal

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