Ancient Ways is the first book in the Grimes Trilogy. When young Grimes loses his mother and siblings in a suspicious accident, his eccentric professor father raises him in a secluded mountaintop community of academics called the Retreat. As he comes of age, he learns he is no ordinary boy-he is actually a member of a secret race called the Ancients. Using his enhanced powers of perception, he is trained in the arts of combat, science, and wilderness survival to reach his full potential. On his quest to discover his true destiny he seeks out a reclusive wise man known as Mentor, who warns him of the evil Sarcigen Empire that threatens the very existence of their race. When Grimes meets a fellow Ancient, the enchanting Elsay, they fall in love, but their peace and happiness are short-lived. The brutal Sarcigens are on their trail, intent on winning a war that has been brewing for hundreds of years. Joining forces with Willyum the Bushman, a logger with a mysterious past, they must attempt to escape to the northern Kingdom of the United Princedoms of Koramar, which is the setting for Book 2, Koramarian Ways.