Solaris is thrilled to announce the acquisition of Saint Death’s Herald by C. S. E. Cooney, sequel to the whimsically Gothic Saint Death’s Daughter. Saint Death’s Herald will be published in Spring 2025.
Lanie Stones, a necromancer with a heart of gold and an unfortunate allergy to violence, returns in an epic road trip to put a stop to her power-hungry great-grandfather.
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 ghost of 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.
Lanie must embark on an epic road trip across the realms to stop him. With her unlikely companions—an undead flying tiger rug, her Falcon Defender best friend, and a former-foe-turned-ally who has every reason to hate her family—Lanie must first journey across Leech to parlay with its Witch Queen and her shapechanger subjects. Then she’ll venture into Umrys-by-the-Sea, where gutter children are going missing at an alarming rate and the King’s Saint is too afraid to leave the palace. Always one step behind her devious grandfather, Lanie will have to breach the heart of Skakmaht itself to stop him before he possesses a body that will make him well-nigh invincible: that of Samu Skrathmandan, the most powerful sky wizard Skakmaht has ever known.
World English Language Rights were acquired by David Moore from Markus Hoffmann at Regal Hoffmann Literary.
Author C. S. E. Cooney on the acquisition:
“I’m THRILLED TO THE BONE that I get to share the further adventures of Lanie Stones, Necromancer, with the world! So grateful to be working again with the fabulous Solaris team!”
Acquiring Editor David Moore:
“I’m absolutely delighted! Saint Death’s Daughter was one of my favourite books of last year, full of rich, playful language and a decadent, gorgeously-described world. Imagine if Jonathan Strange’s Susanna Clarke set Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books in Gormenghast and you’re more or less there.”
C. S. E. Cooney is the author of World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories. Her short novel The Twice-Drowned Saint is included in Mythic Delirium’s anthology The Sinister Quartet. Other work includes Tordotcom novella Desdemona and the Deep, and a poetry collection: How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, which features her Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” Her short fiction and poetry can be found in 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 elsewhere.
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Saint Death’s Daughter
