Viscera
-
- €12.99
-
- €12.99
Publisher Description
“[Viscera] is dark, weird, and wonderfully human, and I cannot recommend it enough. It’s far and away the weirdest, most original thing you will read this year, and Gabriel Squailia gives it heart that matches its entrails beat-for-beat.”
—B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
The Gone-Away gods were real, once, and taller than towers.
But they’re long dead now, buried in the catacombs beneath the city of Eth, where their calcified organs radiate an eldritch power that calls out to anyone hardy enough to live in this cutthroat, war-torn land. Some survivors are human, while others are close enough, but all are struggling to carve out their lives in a world both unforgiving and wondrous. Darkly comic and viciously original, Viscera is an unforgettable journey through swords-and-sorcery fantasy where strangeness gleams from every nook and cranny.
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Squailia litters the landscape of their grim fantasy standalone with the dead and the undead, as well as unspeakable, dark beauty. The title isn't metaphorical: the city of Eth and its surroundings, inhabited by entities both human and not, have their basis in the organs of dead gods. After addict and cult member Rafe Davin murders Ashlan Ley to harvest her organs, the immortal Ashlan literally comes back to haunt him. When a cranky, oddly charming "mannikin" named Hollis Runt enlists Ashlan's help to find and kill his maker, the Puppeteer, she unexpectedly finds herself face-to-face with the dying Rafe and decides to use him to help complete Hollis's mission. The world is seething with the grotesque and fantastic, and gender fluidity is explored to heartbreaking effect. However, the world seems to have sprung up fully realized in its present moment; Squailia (Dead Boys) never delves much into the history that shapes the story, and toward the end, when Ashlan and Rafe must face some devastating truths, the plot unravels a bit, keeping the conclusion from being completely satisfying.
