The story of a young minister and his flock—first in the Scottish author’s Marshmallows Trilogy including The Seaboard Parish and The Vicar’s Daughter. MacDonald’s first major English novel, published in 1867, was set in the village of Arundel on the downs south of London near the south channel coast. It was the site of MacDonald’s first and only pastorate as a newly married minister in 1851-53. This book is wonderfully descriptive of the region, with autobiographical hints of MacDonald’s outlook as a young pastor. Chronicling the daily life of one of MacDonald’s fictionalized “ideal ministers”—perhaps a portrayal of the shepherd-pastor MacDonald had himself hoped to be—the Annals proved one of his most popular novels. First released in the Sunday Magazine, which was intended for “Sabbath reading,” Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood was quickly published in numerous book editions and contributed in a significant way to MacDonald’s growing popularity in America. Though less spine-riveting of plot, the three volumes of the Marshmallows Trilogy spawned by Annals provide some of MacDonald’s most homiletic and deeply spiritual writings.

The Wizard Lord's duty is to keep the world in its delicate balance. He must govern lightly to protect his domain from power-hungry interlopers, such as certain wizards who previously fought to rule the world...But if the Wizard Lord himself strays from the way of the just, then it is up to the Chosen to intercede. The Chosen ones are the Leader, the Seer, the Swordsman, the Beauty, the Thief, the Scholar, the Archer, and the Speaker. Each are magically-infused mortal individuals who, for the term of their service, have only one function--to be available to remove an errant Wizard Lord, whether by persuasion or by stronger means. Breaker, a young man of ambition, has taken the mantle of Swordsman from its former bearer who wished to retire. Never did he realize that he would be called to duty so quickly, or that the balance of power in his world would be so precarious. He had a duty to perform. A world to save. So why does he still have doubts...not just about himself, but about the entire balance of power?