His award-winning novel “The Trolls” sent Christoph Hardebusch to the league of leading German fantasy authors. With “Voices of Fire” he now guides all his fans into a new world:
For ages the ancient terror was hidden in the depths of the sea, almost forgotten by mankind. But now the fifth dragon, an almighty creature of darkness, is awake. And he wants to end what he could not fulfill centuries ago: to subjugate the world.
In secrecy the power of the dragon grows and people recognize almost too late that darkness achieved control over them. While young queen Elena tries everything to protect her people, the bard Aidan learns about his very special gift, crucial for fighting the dragon — the chant of magic…
The new novel by Christoph Hardebusch arose during mutual dreaming with Van Canto Lead Vocalist Philip Dennis “Sly” Schunke. The a cappella metalband turned the story about Aidan and Elena into a powerful music album, also titled “Voices of Fire”.
«We are barely able to tell what came first: the music as part of the novel or the novel as part of our album. Christoph Hardebusch and we worked hand in hand on this. Our compositions did influence the novel and vice versa. Simply put, we created our own world — a world full of competing kingdoms, epic battles, dragons, fire and bards. Not always deadly serious but full of adventures to set your imagination running wild… like Van Canto does," explains lead singer Sly who developed the plot of the novel together with Christoph Hardebusch.
“On the one hand working closely with Van Canto was a lot of fun but on the other hand it was also very demanding,” adds author Christoph Hardebusch. “The great picture can only be achieved when creative minds interact with each other; the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Right from the start, story and music has been a unit which has influenced and fueled each other.”