The Screaming Skull
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A cursed relic. A hungry demon. A prince who won’t be caught dead fighting the enemy sober.
Elberon messed up big time. After beating the king in magical combat, his glorious victory was short-lived when the royally pissed-off loser exiled him to a life of petty thievery… despite being his son. But when he stumbles upon an ancient Screaming Skull, he can’t decide what’s worse: the bloodthirsty murderous monsters it keeps summoning or the fact that the fleshless bony head just won’t shut up.
And as if a jaw-dropping villainous boss wasn’t distracting enough, Elberon and his rockin’ warrior crew must take on a child-eating fiend beneath the city. But when it appears a dark wizard is behind the chaotic mayhem, this low-level adventurer must exchange his beer for a sword to change his doubly doomed fate.
Can Elberon cheat death and save his realm, or will he fall victim to his own foul-mouthed delusions?
"The Screaming Skull" is the outlandish first volume in "The Chronicles of Elberon" heavy-metal fantasy trilogy. If you like hapless heroes, time-jumping storytelling, and breaking the fourth wall, then you’ll love Rick Ferguson’s sidesplitting epic.
Buy "The Screaming Skull" to enter a hilarious world of parody and peril today!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ferguson's wildly original debut, the first in the Chronicles of Elberon series, plays fast and loose with literary convention in a self-aware whirlwind of epic fantasy tropes and absurdist humor. Elberon, a foulmouthed 64-year-old former adventurer, is now King of the Tradewind Isles and finds himself caught between two prophecies of the future: one in which he lives another 65 years in deteriorating health and another in which the world ends at the hands of one of his former compatriots on the day of his 65th birthday. Both strike him as horrific. The nonlinear narrative jumps between the present and Elberon's checkered past, recounting his rise to power and loopy adventures through the Multiverse, armed with a screaming skull that may be one of the magical Phylaxes of Koschei the Deathless, a figure compared to "Sauron, Voldemort, Lord Foul, Thulsa Doom, or Vladimir Putin." Ferguson pays irreverent homage to classic fantasies, mythology, and video games throughout as Elberon's adventuring party grows and he rises to power. Ferguson's biting wit, over-the-top plot, and relentless meta commentary will have readers laughing and groaning in equal measure. (Self-published.)
