The Red Empress is the only home Erzelle has known since the day her family was lured aboard and murdered, victims of a grisly ritual meant to make the elite immortal. Erzelle plays her harp for the diners inside this ghoul-infested riverboat, knowing her own death looms, escaping through the music that’s all she has left of her parents.
Her nightmare’s upended in the space of a day by the arrival of Olyssa, a fellow musician, but so much more.
Erzelle is swept up in Olyssa’s quest to find her ensorcelled sister Lilla, a journey across a mutated landscape that leads them to an enemy responsible for the deaths of millions. To stop the slaughter of countless more, the pair has no choice but to draw on the deadly magic that reshaped the world … a power that’s as dangerous to its wielders as it is to its foes, one that’s killing Erzelle even as she fights to control it.
“Some very black magic indeed… A prize for the multitude of fans who relish strong Grand Guignol with their sword and sorcery.”
—Tanith Lee
“A dark, luscious feast of a book… Allen has created a fantastic world of fantasy and horror like a Bosch painting, like a Shostakovitch symphony—something out of a beautiful nightmare.”
—R.S. Belcher
Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita.
An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his latest dark fantasy novel
Trail of Shadows, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence
The Black Fire Concerto and
The Ghoulmaker's Aria, and his newest horror collection,
Slow Burn.
Unseaming and
Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable "The Button Bin" was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection,
The Spider Tapestries, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy.
As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology
Clockwork Phoenix 5, the culmination of the
Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for
Mythic Delirium, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.
He's a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include
Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, a
Philadelphia Inquirer Editor's Choice selection, and
Hungry Constellations, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee.
With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.
