Tyrant magus Edrin Walker destroyed the monster sent by the Skallgrim, but not

before it laid waste to Setharis, and infested their magical elite with

mind-controlling parasites. Edrin’s own Gift to seize the minds of others was

cracked by the strain of battle, and he barely survives the interrogation of a

captured magus. There’s no time for recovery though: a Skallgrim army is

marching on the mountain passes of the Clanhold. Edrin and a coterie of

villains race to stop them, but the mountains are filled with gods, daemons,

magic, and his hideous past. Walker must stop at nothing to win, even if that

means losing his mind. Or worse…

A city threatened by unimaginable horrors must trust their most hated

outcast, or lose everything, in this crushing epic fantasy debut.

After ten years on the run, dodging daemons and debt, reviled magician Edrin

Walker returns home to avenge the brutal murder of his friend. Lynas had

uncovered a terrible secret, something that threatened to devour the entire

city. He tried to warn the Arcanum, the sorcerers who rule the city. He

failed. Lynas was skinned alive and Walker felt every cut. Now nothing will

stop him from finding the murderer. Magi, mortals, daemons, and even the gods

- Walker will burn them all if he has to. After all, it wouldn’t be the first

time he’s killed a god…

This anthology includes 120 authors—who contributed 230 works totaling

approximately 1.1 million words of fiction. These pieces all originally

appeared in 2014, 2015, or 2016 from writers who are new professionals to the

SFF field, and they represent a breathtaking range of work from the next

generation of speculative storytelling.

All of these authors are eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New

Writer in 2016. We hope you’ll use this anthology as a guide in nominating for

that award as well as a way of exploring many vibrant new voices in the genre.