Another day, another funeral to which Prince Darov had bequeathed his royal presence. He was quite accustomed to the particulars by now: the bowed heads and shuffling feet; the murmured condolences; the gazes sliding away from awkward eye contact; the firing of the corpse from the neodymium boson cannon; the loved ones galloping after said corpse to tear it asunder and gobble it down, the outer brain saved for the family matriarch to spew into the maws of the younglings in a sort of cognitive soup.
All Prince Darov ever wanted was to see out his days carousing, imbibing things, hating on his brother and generally being waited on hand and foot. But a revolting faux pas at an alien funeral combined with unsound financial choices shove him rudely onto a path of blackmail, burglary, and a conspiracy reaching to the heart of the Trappist empire. Oh, and perhaps a war or two. And the fungal plague known as manpox in some quarters really isn’t helping.
All in all, Darov sure could use Hissaq’s help, but alas his trusty equerry is otherwise engaged investigating the senseless slaughter of a race of peaceful forest dwellers somewhere down south. Maybe an animatronic replica of his brother’s head will help. Or maybe not.
With a cast of characters including ditzy AIs, freakish symbionts, a twelve-year-old wannabe assassin and a cunning hogwrangler who cannot stop birthing miniature copies of himself, high jinx are to be expected.
The Hogman’s Homunculi and the Angelwing Massacre is the first book of The Chronicles of Lemuria, a world filled with weird places and even weirder creatures, tested alliances and forbidden secrets, alien intrigue and deeply unpleasant scenes.
A comic sci-fi tale for fans of Terry Pratchett, Jack Vance and Robert Silverberg’s Majipoor series: fill your boots.
Coming late 2025 (hopefully)