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About The Book

Miscellaneous “Lanie” Stones is the necromancer that Doédenna, god of Death, has been praying for.

True, she's always been more interested in books and pastries than in creating abominations and raising armies of the undead. But still—she lives to love and serve Saint Death. And damn it duodecifold, Saint Death needs her! Lanie has many talents—her powers of death magic are growing more complex and stranger every day—but first and foremost is her ability to lay the unrestful dead to their unending slumber.

Unfortunately for Lanie, the most restless of these “unrestful dead" happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones. After having escaped from his temporary prison, he is possessing people from all over the realms, sucking them dry of their magic and discarding their bodies when there’s nothing left to take, growing stronger and stronger all the time. His ultimate goal? To return to the icy country of Skakmaht, where he died, and finish conquering the North for his own. First the North—then the world! After Irradiant takes care of his pesky great-granddaughter Lanie, that is: the only person on Athe who can stop him.

About The Author

C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of novel Saint Death’s Daughter and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Her other work includes The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, Desdemona and the Deep, and poetry collection How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, containing her Rhysling Award-winning poem “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” Her short fiction and poetry can be found in such places as Jonathan Strahan’s anthology Dragons, Ellen Datlow’s Mad Hatters and March Hares: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the forthcoming Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, edited by Julie C. Day Cooney is also a voice actor and game designer, who has narrated over 120 audiobooks, as well as short fiction and D&D actual plays for podcasts. Negocios Infernales, a TTRPG she co-designed with her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez, is out now from Outland Entertainment.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Solaris (April 24, 2025)
  • Length: 480 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781837864492

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Raves and Reviews

“Grisly, dark, lovely, funny, heartfelt.”Kirkus, starred review

“Every character arrives in a burst: fully-realized, always finding their mark, dripping with detail and a fire in their heart.”—Tor.com

“Wildly inventive.”Buzzfeed

“You can’t help but learn to love death alongside her.”—Rhianna Pratchett

“Soaring with love and absolutely fizzing with tenderness and joy—I have never read anything so utterly alive.”—Amal El-Mohtar

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More books from this author: C. S. E. Cooney

More books in this series: Saint Death Series