BEYOND CRYSTAL CASTLES, first book in Fred Hoffman’s epic series “Empires for the Taking” transports the charismatic St. Brendan, a legendary sixth century Irish monk, Thomas, his youthful novice-biographer and a crew of adventurers from the squalor and religious turmoil of Celtic Ireland to the sacrificial altars of a Toltec jungle.

Druidic powers, devastating coca intoxication and the coronation of Brendan as the white Toltec god Quetzalcoatl open the first novel of the four book series.