Under the harsh thrall of usurper King Dragmond and his incestuous lover, the evil sorceress Ravenna, Palerna has become a sullen land of darkness, disease, and dread. — The gutters of Palerna are young Brenn's world—until the night the thief robs an old man's house and becomes a wizard's captive. Astoundingly, Mage Terrance offers the youth a choice: hideous punishment or a chance to master the secrets of sorcery! But then, Terrance knows who and what Brenn truly is, the innocent key to a war of destinies that has raged for generations. And worse, the innocent target of Dragmond's murderous fury ... Even with the help of a Mage, how can a lone thief hope to battle Dragmond's armies—or Ravenna's armies of the living dead?
Author
Michael Williams was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and through good luck and a roundabout journey through New England, New York, Wisconsin, Britain and Ireland, has ended up less than thirty miles from where he began. Over the past 20 years, he has written a number of strange novels, from the early WEASEL'S LUCK and GALEN BEKNIGHTED in the best-selling DRAGONLANCE series to the more recent lyrical and experimental ARCADY, singled out for praise by Locus and Asimov’s magazines. TRAJAN'S ARCH (to be re-released in 2019) and VINE (2018)(Blackwyrm, 2010 and 2012), two recent novels, have been revised and re-issued by Seventh Star Press as part of the new City Quartet. DOMINIC'S GHOSTS (2018) and TATTERED MEN (to be released in 2019) will complete this large and multi-faceted work. Williams has a Ph.D. in Humanities, and teaches at the University of Louisville, where he focuses on European Romanticism and the 19th century, the Modern Fantastic, and 20th century film. He is married, and has two grown sons. Of TRAJAN'S ARCH, he says: “This is a story that kept entering other stories, like rooms opening into rooms in some big, unwieldy gothic mansion, both hard and necessary to tell. It takes a press with venture and backbone to bring it forth, and I believe I’ve found that press in BlackWyrm.” VINE, a combination of Greek tragedy and contemporary urban legend, was released this summer by BlackWyrm. In this new novel, Greek Tragedy meets urban legend, as a local dramatic production in a small city goes humorously, then horrifically, awry.
