Ignifer’s Rise
by Michael
John Grist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
The
fate of the world is written in scars.
In a bleak industrial city where marks in skin are a sentence to death,
Sen is a child condemned. Cursed with mysterious scars carved by his own mother's
hand, he leads a fearful hidden life in the city's last abbey.
Then
the King's brutal Adjunc attack, and Sen barely escapes with his life. Lost and
alone in the city's dark hinterlands, he begins an exhilarating race to find
the truth behind his scars. In stinking black sewers and the lava-buried ruins
of an ancient civilization, he uncovers a truth far stranger than he ever
imagined, laid out by his long-dead mother: an apocalypse god is rising, and
only the legendary hero Saint Ignifer can stop it.
But
Saint Ignifer is dead.
Revolution
rocks the city. The blood of all castes runs in the streets. With a storm of
new faith raging out from the barricades, Sen must embrace the terrible fate
his mother wrote in his scars- in the volcano's caldera, at the end of the
world- before the black jaws of the apocalypse descend. For the Rot is coming, and the Saint must
rise.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
Avia fled
through the ash-smothered streets of Aradabar, and the Rot's fiery black tongue
swept close behind.
Moths and
Butterflies thudded to ground around her, bursting on cobbled stone, their
broad wings seared away by the Rot's ashen touch. Avia ran on, down burnlit
streets through rushes of mounding dust, as agonized screams rang out from
behind.
They were all
going to die.
Through
breaks in the city's skyline of library towers she glimpsed the column of flame
rising from the horizon, like a brilliant orange flower painted on the sky. The
mountain was erupting; one last defense against the Rot, and soon Aradabar
would be gone.
She sped down
the narrow alleys of the outer bookyards, striding over bodies already
half-buried in volcanic dust, holding her newborn son close. The wounds in his
face were scabbing now, lines she had carved with her own hand that would save
or damn them all.
"Help
us, please!" voices called from a burning hut.
She glimpsed
children trapped inside, hay-stuffed pillows tamped over their heads against
falling rock. She couldn't help them, and ran on.
At a canal
she came upon a thronging exodus of carriages and barges, filled with frantic
denizens shouting to one another through the scalding ash. She slipped between
their carriage wheels and ran across their jumbled barge decks.
"Lady
Avia!" a Man of Quartz called out, but she only pulled her hood tight
about her head and continued, leaving them behind.
"Where
is King Seem?" he called after her. "Where is our King?"
Moments
later, his cries joined the eruption's cacophony as the Rot found him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Michael John
Grist is a 34-year old British writer and ruins photographer who lives in
Tokyo, Japan. He writes dark and surreal science fiction and fantasy, inspired
by authors such as David Gemmell and Orson Scott Card.
In his free
time he explores and photographs abandoned places around the world, such as
ruined theme parks, military bases, underground bunkers, and ghost towns. These
explores have drawn millions of visitors to his website: michaeljohngrist.com, and often provide
inspiration for his fiction.
You can buy
Saint Ignifer's Rise here on
Sign up for
his releases newsletter here:
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And, friend
him on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/mjgwrites
Michael will be awarding an autographed print copy of Ignifer's Rise to a randomly drawn winner.
Thank you for hosting
ReplyDeleteLove your bright cover and the excerpt thank you
ReplyDeletethe excerpt is great thank you
ReplyDelete