The Dead Hamlets : Book Two of the Book of Cross

“Pushes urban fantasy noir to its logical extreme by casting the resurrected body of Christ—now called Cross—as an angel-slaying, wise-cracking antihero.” —Publishers Weekly For thousands of years, Cross has wandered the earth, a mortal soul trapped in the undying body left behind by Christ. He's been a thief, a con man, a soldier, and a drunkard. He's fought as a slave in the Colosseum and as a knight at King Arthur's side. But now he must play the part of reluctant hero, as an angel comes to him for help finding the Mona Lisa—the real Mona Lisa that inspired the painting. Cross's quest takes him into a secret world within our own, populated by characters just as strange and wondrous as he is. Haunted by memories of Penelope—the only woman he truly loved—he wants to avenge her death at the hands of his ancient enemy, Judas, a forgotten god from an ancient time. The angel promises to deliver Judas to Cross, but nothing is ever what it seems when Judas is involved, and when a group of renegade angels looking for a new holy war show up, things truly go to hell. “A deliriously unhinged roller coaster of a novel, blending fantasy, history, horror and humour with the aplomb of an overfull blender, but all of it smarter than it, truly, has any right—or need—to be.” —National Post “Sweeps you up with its gallows humour, whether you're revelling in the pleasures of two-fisted, angel-punching action or the cleverly rendered language.” —Quill & Quire “Takes urban fantasy to a different level with this tale of conspiracy and confession.” —Library Journal “a Fantastical Ghost Story And A Suspenseful Military Mystery . . . A Daringly Original Fantasy Novel” From The Authors Of The Steel Seraglio (publishers Weekly). 1740. With The Whole Of Europe Balanced On The Brink Of War, An Austrian Regiment Is Sent To The Furthest Frontier Of The Empire To Hold The Border Against The Might Of Prussia. Their Garrison, The Ancient House Called Pokoj. But Pokoj Is Already Inhabited By A Company Of Ghosts From Every Age Of The House’s History. Only Drozde, The Quartermaster’s Mistress, Can See Them, And Terrifyingly They Welcome Her As A Friend. As These Ageless Phantoms Tell Their Stories, Drozde Gets Chilling Glimpses Not Just Of Pokoj’s Past But Of A Looming Menace In Its Future. Meanwhile The Humorless Lieutenant Klaes Pursues Another Mystery. Why Are The People Of The Neighboring Village So Surly And Withdrawn, So Reluctant To Welcome The Soldiers Who Are There To Protect Them? What Are They Hiding? And What Happened To The Local Militia Unit That Was Stationed At Pokoj Before The Regiment Arrived? The Camp Follower And The Officer Make Their Separate Journeys To The Same Appalling Discovery—an Impending Catastrophe That Will Sweep Away Villagers And Soldiers Alike. Perhaps Neither Of Them Can Prevail. If They Do, It Will Be With The Help Of The Restless Dead . . . “the House Of War And Witness Burns Slow To Start, But By The End It Burns Fiercely. It’s A Compelling, Accomplished Novel, Deft With Its Characters And Interesting With Its Themes.” —strange Horizons Skinheads. Drug dealers. Cops. For two brothers-of-circumstance navigating the violent streets of this industrial wasteland, every urban tribe is a potential threat. Yet it is amongst the denizens of these unforgiving alleys, dangerous squat houses, and underground nightclubs that the brothers - and the small street tribe to which they belong - forge the bonds that will see them through senseless minor cruelties, the slow and constant grind of poverty, and savage boot culture violence. Friendship. Understanding. Affinity. For two brothers, these fragile ties are the only hope they have for salvation in the wake of a mutual girlfriend's suicide, an event so devastating that it drives one to seek solace far from his steel city roots, and the other to a tragic - yet miraculous - transformation, a heartbreaking metamorphosis from poet and musician to street prophet, emerging from a self-imposed cocoon an urban shaman, mad-eyed shaper of (t)ruthless reality. What We Salvage is a reckless, gritty, and unapologetic journey, a novel that seizes the poignant fragility of Catcher in the Rye and throws it into a merciless world reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange. It is a work that author James Morrow dubbed "postmodern punk," a term that befits Baillie's poetry-as-street-prose style. 1740. With the whole of Europe balanced on the brink of war, an Austrian regiment is sent to the furthest frontier of the empire to hold the border against the might of Prussia. Their garrison, the ancient house called Pokoj. But Pokoj is already inhabited, by a company of ghosts from every age of the house's history. Only Drozde, the quartermaster's mistress, can see them, and terrifyingly they welcome her as a friend. As these ageless phantoms tell their stories Drozde gets chilling glimpses not just of Pokoj's past but of a looming menace in its future. Meanwhile the humourless lieutenant Klaes pursues another mystery. Why are the people of the neighbouring village so surly and withdrawn, so reluctant to welcome the soldiers who are there to protect them? What are they hiding? And what happened to the local militia unit that was stationed at Pokoj before the regiment arrived? The camp follower and the officer make their separate journies to the same appalling discovery ? an impending catastrophe that will sweep away villagers and soldiers alike. But to stop it would pit Klaes against his entire regiment and Drozde against the one man in the world she truly fears. Perhaps neither of them can prevail. If they do, it will be with the help of the restless dead. . . The immortal hero of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice turns from art history to a literary mystery. “A fun, and whip-smart, read.” —National Post Something is rotten in the court of the faerie queen. A deadly spirit is killing off the faerie, and it has mysterious ties to Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. The only one who can stop it is the immortal Cross, a charming rogue who also happens to be a drunk, a thief, and an angel killer. He is no friend of the faerie since they stole his daughter and made her one of their own. When it appears she may be the next victim of the haunting, though, he must race against time to save her. He encounters an eccentric and deadly cast of characters along the way: the real Witches of Macbeth, the undead playwright/demon hunter Christopher Marlowe, an eerie Alice from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland books, a deranged and magical scholar—and a very supernatural William Shakespeare. When Cross discovers a startling secret about the origins of Hamlet itself, he finds himself trapped in a ghost story even he may not be able to escape alive. “The Dead Hamlets resembles something written by Neil Gaiman with its somewhat mystical imagery, and at other times it reads as a full-blown work of bizarro fiction.” —The Examiner "For thousands of years, Cross has wandered the earth, a mortal soul trapped in the undying body left behind by Christ. He's been a thief, a con man, a soldier and a drunkard. He's fought as a slave in the Colosseum and as a knight at King Arthur's side. But now he must play the part of reluctant hero, as an angel comes to him for help finding the Mona Lisa-- the real Mona Lisa that inspired the painting. Cross's quest takes him into a secret world within our own, populated by characters just as strange and wondrous as he is: gorgons and dead gods hidden away in museums; faeries that live in countryside pubs, trapping and enslaving unwary travellers; and super-rich collectors who trade magical artifacts among themselves. He's haunted by memories of Penelope, the only woman he truly loved, and he wants to avenge her death at the hands of his ancient enemy, Judas, a forgotten god from an ancient time. The angel promises to deliver Judas to Cross, but nothing is ever what it seems when Judas is involved, and when a group of renegade angels looking for a new holy war show up, things truly go to hell"--Publisher's web site An “unpredictable, brilliantly imaginative, and very engaging” collection of dark fantasy and sci-fi stories by the acclaimed author of Chrysanthe (Ursula K. Le Guin). In these fourteen stories, ranging from baroque science fiction to bleak fantasy, Yves Meynard brings to life wonders and horrors. From space travelers who must rid themselves of the sins their souls accumulate in transit to a young man whose love transcends time; from refugees in a frozen hold at the end of space to a city drowning under the weight of its architectural prayer; from an alien Jerusalem that has corrupted the Earth to a land still bleeding from the scars of a supernatural war, here are windows opened onto astonishing vistas, stories written with a scientist's laser focus alloyed with a poet's sensibilities. “These stories cover a vast range.... Some are fantasy, some are science fiction, and many of them cover an interesting middle ground between the two—a form I think of as myths of the future, and of which Meynard has a special mastery.” —Jo Walton, from the introduction Alexander waits in his yellow-gray house in a yellow wood for his namesake daughter, the one who "of all my children ... has always stirred me most, with love, with rage and fear, with envy and disappointment." He has summoned her. She is his prodigal child, and she is his scion, and it's time. Alexandra left as soon as she turned eighteen, the only way she could keep from being swallowed up by her father, her only chance of having a life of her own. Alexandra grew up with her father's voice in her head, his will on her in one form or another. Now, though she vowed she never would, she is going back. Because his voice came into her head, ordering her home. The longer Alexandra stays with her father in her childhood home, the stronger her suspicions that his control over her is more insidious than she knew. Her siblings are all oddly under his control, exactly what he made them, and she discovers evidence of what he has planned for her. "She fled to live her own life," Alexander observes. "As if there ever were such a thing." We dream of angels, black as space, and wish they could return from the future to warn us of the dark years ahead. We who have forgotten our origin, exiles in a land we may have shaped with our own hands; we who struggle to find meaning in a world that only vouchsafes us deadly revelation; we wage war, for reasons now lost to us, and our hopes are as tenuous as the light of a single star. In these twelve sombre tales, ranging from baroque science fiction to bleak fantasy, Yves Meynard brings to life wonders and horrors. From space travelers who must rid themselves of the sins their souls accumulate in transit, to a young man whose love transcends time; from refugees in a frozen hold at the end of space, to a city drowning under the weight of its architectural prayer; from an alien Jerusalem that has corrupted the Earth, to a land still bleeding from the scars of a supernatural war; here are windows opened onto astonishing vistas, stories written with a scientist's laser focus alloyed with a poet's sensibilities Intro -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Probably Monsters: a brief explanation -- Epigraph -- All Change -- I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing -- The Festering -- At Night, When the Demons Come -- Night Fishing -- Knock-Knock -- The Death Drive of Rita, nee Carina -- The Man Who Was -- Shark! Shark! -- Bloodcloth -- The Tilt -- Bones of Crow -- Pins and Needles -- Gator Moon -- Where the Salmon Run -- Indian Giver -- A Mother's Blood -- The Travellers Stay -- No More West -- Beachcombing -- Story Notes -- All Change -- I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing -- The Festering -- At Night, When the Demons Come -- Night Fishing -- Knock-Knock -- The Death Drive of Rita, nee Carina -- The Man Who Was -- Shark! Shark! -- Bloodcloth -- The Tilt -- Bones of Crow -- Pins and Needles -- Gator Moon -- Where the Salmon Run -- Indian Giver -- A Mother's Blood -- The Travellers Stay -- No More West -- Beachcombing -- Acknowledgements -- About the Author -- Publication Dates -- Marketing Book two in the "Book of Cross" series. Something is rotten in the court of the faerie queen. A deadly spirit is killing off the faerie, and it has mysterious ties to Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. The only one who can stop it is the immortal Cross, a charming rogue who also happens to be a drunk, a thief, and an angel killer. He is no friend of the faerie since they stole his daughter and made her one of their own. When it appears she may be the next victim of the haunting, though, he must race against time to save her. He encounters an eccentric and deadly cast of characters along the way: the real Witches of Macbeth, the undead playwright/demon hunter Christopher Marlowe, an eerie Alice from the Alice in Wonderland books, a deranged and magical scholar'and a very supernatural William Shakespeare. When Cross discovers a startling secret about the origins of Hamlet itself, he finds himself trapped in a ghost story even he may not be able to escape alive A grown daughter confronts her father's dark power in this “smart, creepy, and painfully insightful [novel]” by the Bram Stoker Award–winning author (Publishers Weekly). To forge a life for herself, Alexandra Kove knew she had to escape the claustrophobic forest where her father had raised her. Always headstrong and independent, she was the only one of her siblings to leave. But now, after thirty years away from the yellow wood and her father's influence, Alexandra is returning to see him, perhaps for the last time. Though she is determined to maintain her independence, Alexandra soon finds herself ensnared in a battle of wills with a man whose control over his children seems somehow more than natural. Alexandra always knew that her father was something of a wizard, but she's about to discover just how real—and how powerful—his wizardry is. “The Yellow Wood is a terrific book, and I came away from it unsettled, even a bit horrified.” —Tor.com Dark, weird, literary horror stories—quintessential ChiZine material. This title comes from a little girl called Isabella who discovered a hole in the carpet and promptly asked how it got there. Ray didn't know. So she produced her own answer, delivered with the straight simplicity only childhood allows: “Probably monsters.” This book answers similarly. Sometimes the monsters are bloodsucking fiends with fleshy wings or shambling dead things that won't rest. Other times they're creatures red in tooth and claw. And sometimes they're people, people like me and you and sometimes they're things these people are scared of or don't understand, things that make us howl in the darkness, often hoping no one hears. Despite what our parents may have told us, there are such things as monsters. Lots of them. We discover that quickly, growing up.