Out now in paperback & hardcover · Adult science fantasy

The Seventh Tier

Amis would have lived among books. But the dead came to his door.

In a world where the Roman Empire endured into a colder, stranger age, Amis has known little beyond books, instruments, and the impossible temper of his master, Guy de Chauliac. Until an unwanted guest arrives, carrying news from a war Amis was never meant to know. Forced north with a battered Roman century, Amis begins to uncover the truth of his lineage — and that the world he was taught to understand was never the whole of it.

The paperback and hardcover are available now.

Order direct from the author — every copy is printed on demand and shipped worldwide within days. Prefer to read digitally? The eBook is on Kindle.

Choose Your Edition

Paperback · Hardcover · Bespoke Hardcover · eBook on Kindle

Book One of Tierfall Alternate-history military fantasy Empire · winter frontier · hidden lineage

Release

Paperback and hardcover are available now, direct from the author. The eBook is available on Kindle, and the audiobook follows soon, with updates shared through the launch list.

Series

Book One of Tierfall — a dark tale of empire, inheritance, and the hidden powers that decide which worlds are allowed to rise.

Author

Nicholas P. Lampert served in the United States Navy before pursuing a doctorate in the health professions. His fiction blends historical imagination with science fantasy, exploring power, duty, identity, and the hidden forces that shape the world.

Book description

The Seventh Tier is a dark adult science-fantasy novel set in an alternate world where Rome never fell, its legions still march, and history has been carefully shaped by powers few are meant to understand.

Amis is an ink-stained apprentice in Paris, more comfortable with books, instruments, and the impossible temper of his master, Guy de Chauliac, than with soldiers or swords. His life changes the night Guy drags a dying stranger into their home: a blindfolded centurion named Fiore, wounded, hunted, and carrying warnings from a war Amis was never meant to know existed.

Forced from the safety of his master’s house and into the frozen mud of a marching century, Amis finds himself bound to a ragged company of Roman soldiers, disgraced officers, and men with secrets darker than his own. Beyond the frontier, villages are vanishing. In the shadows, assassins close in. And beneath the empire’s familiar order lies a hidden struggle over knowledge, bloodline, and the fate of worlds kept from rising too far.

Amis is no soldier. He has not been trained for war, and the powers moving around him have no intention of waiting until he is ready. To survive, he must learn who is protecting him, who is using him, and why his existence may threaten the balance that holds his world in chains.

The Seventh Tier is Book One of Tierfall, blending Roman-inspired alternate history, military fantasy, forbidden technology, and cosmic mystery into a grim campaign of loyalty, empire, and hidden war.

Cover art for The Seventh Tier: a lone hooded figure carrying a rune-marked shield walks a dark forest path toward a burning stone fortress.
Rendered without AI · sketched by Matt Hubel

Artwork

Painted by hand, not prompted

Every image on this book — cover, endpapers, interior — was painted by Matt Hubel. No generated art, anywhere.

Endpaper illustration: an armoured figure watches from beneath a great tree as light falls across a still forest pool.
Endpapers Printed inside the front and back boards of the Bespoke Hardback — this edition only.
The full cover wrap: a hooded figure with a rune-marked shield approaches a burning stone fortress on the front, a ruined arched bridge in mist across the back.
Full cover wrap Front, spine and back painted as a single continuous scene.

Matt Hubel

Matt is a fantasy and science-fiction artist whose work includes major publishers and AAA game projects. He painted the cover wrap, the endpapers and the interior art for The Seventh Tier. The cover art appears on every edition; the endpapers and interior art are exclusive to the Bespoke Hardback.

The endpaper illustration is the reason the Bespoke Hardback exists at all — it deserved to be printed at size, on paper worth looking at.

No generated art

Nothing here was made by a machine. Every piece was drawn and painted by a person who was paid for it. That costs more and takes longer, and it is the whole point — a book you keep on a shelf should be made by someone.

Reader reviews

What readers are saying

Early reviews from readers on Amazon.

4.7 out of 5 on Amazon
★★★★★
“Thought this was historical fiction… then things got wild. Amis was probably my favorite part of the book… He is intelligent, curious, sarcastic, and constantly questioning whether everyone around him has lost their minds.”
Kee · Amazon review
★★★★★
“Start in a candlelit sickroom with a corpse that won’t stay dead, end up on a Roman road through Germania… The kind of opener that makes you want the next installment on the shelf already.”
Angelia · Amazon review
★★★★★
“This is the kind of fantasy that feels like there is much more happening beneath the surface than you realize at first… There are betrayals, hidden loyalties, and questions about who is actually working for whom, which kept me turning pages.”
Brianna · Amazon review
★★★★★
“Secrets and loss hit hard in the end, but I will absolutely continue reading this series because I need to know what happens to Amis next!”
coaldaughter · Amazon review
★★★★★
“…a world where the unknown can be just as fascinating as it is dangerous… making you want to understand its rules, secrets, and possibilities as the story unfolds.”
LaQuieta G · Amazon review
★★★★
“…an imaginative setting, interesting characters, and enough suspense to keep me turning the pages. It’s a promising start to the Tierfall series and left me curious about what comes next.”
Jason · Amazon review

Quotes are excerpted from customer reviews on Amazon.com. Read all reviews on Amazon.

The story is in print now.

The paperback and hardcover editions of The Seventh Tier are out now, direct from the author. If dark, Roman-inspired military fantasy is your kind of story, pick the edition that belongs on your shelf — or read it on Kindle.

Choose Your Edition

Paperback and hardcover editions are available now — printed on demand and shipped direct from the printer, worldwide. The eBook is available exclusively on Kindle.

Digital

eBook

Begin The Seventh Tier tonight. The eBook edition is available exclusively on Amazon Kindle and free to read with Kindle Unlimited.

Read on Kindle

Listen

Audiobook

The full narrated edition of the march north, the frozen frontier, and the war Amis was never meant to know.

Coming soon

ARC and media

Reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, and early readers can reach out directly for advance-copy consideration.

Media requests

Interviews, podcast appearances, review coverage, and creator outreach can use the same contact address.

What comes next

Hear about the prequel and book two first.

Join the mailing list for the first updates on the upcoming prequel and book two of Tierfall, along with new artwork from the world as it is created.

The upcoming prequel

Word of the prequel goes out to the list first — what it covers, where it sits in the history of the world, and when you will be able to read it.

Book two of Tierfall

Follow book two as it takes shape, from progress on the story to release timing, before any of it is announced publicly.

Artwork by Matt Hubel

New art for the world is created by Matt Hubel, a fantasy and sci-fi artist whose work includes major publishers and AAA game projects.