“Packed with action and imagined worlds
and filled to the brim with sparkling detail”
NEWSWEEK
“A potent metaphor for the toleration of diversity”
NEW YORK TIMES
“A feast for those who like their fantasies dark”
LOCUS
Legacy of Kings
The young peasant woman Kamala has proven strong and determined enough to claim the most powerful Magister sorcery for herself-but now the Magisters hunt her for killing one of their own. Her only hope of survival lies in the northern Protectorates, where spells are warped by a curse called the Wrath that even the Magisters fear. Originally intended to protect the lands of men from creatures known only as souleaters, the Wrath appears to be weakening-and the threat of this ancient enemy is once more falling across the land. read more…
Soul Mate
Speculative fiction is wide in scope and styles, and Speculative Horizons showcases the talent and storytelling skills of five of the genre’s most imaginative voices.
In C. S. Friedman’s “Soul Mate,” it’s love at first sight for Josie at the arts and crafts festival when she meets the handsome Stephan Mayeaux. It all sounds too good to be true until her newfound boyfriend starts to act strangely and unexplained occurrences begin to take place around her.
Wings of Wrath
In a world where spells are fueled by the essence of one’s own life, the young peasant woman Kamala has proven strong and determined enough to claim the most powerful sorcery for her own. But her rise to power is not without cost. The shadowy brotherhood of Magisters now hunts her for killing one of their kind, and her only hope of survival may lie in fleeing to the northern Protectorates, where spells are warped by a curse called the Wrath and the shadow of an ancient Enemy is once more falling across the land. Joining company with the Guardian Rhys, she will soon discover the true origin of the Wrath, and learn of an ancient artifact that might awaken the northern bloodlines to their true potential…if it does not drive them mad first. read more…
Feast of Souls
Imnea knew when she awoke that Death was waiting for her.
She had been seeing the signs of his presence for some time now. A chill breeze in the corners of the house that wouldn’t go away. Shadows that seeped in through the windows, that didn’t move with the light. The icy touch of a Presence upon her skin when she healed the Hardings’ little girl, that left her shuddering for hours afterwards.
The mirror revealed little. Of course. It wasn’t the way of witching folk to age and die like normal people. The fuel within them was consumed too quickly, like a stove in which all the winter’s wood had been placed at once. What a blaze it made! Yet quickly gone, all of it, until it smothered in its own ash.
How long ago had the dying begun? Did it start in her youth, when she first discovered she could do odd things…tiny little miracles, hardly worth noting…or not until later? Did Death first notice her when she made tiny points of fire dance on the windowsill, with a child’s unconscious delight (and how her mother had punished her for that!), or not until she reached deep within herself with conscious intent to draw strength from her very soul — from that central font of spiritual power which mystics called the athra — and to bend it to her purpose? When and where was the contract with Death sealed, and what act marked its closing? The healing of Atkin’s boy? The calling of rain after the Great Drought of ’92? The day she had cleansed Dirum’s leg of its gangrene, so that they wouldn’t have to cut it off? read more…
Feast of Souls
At the end of her bestselling Coldfire Trilogy, C.S. Friedman challenged readers to imagine what a world would be like if sorcery required the ultimate sacrifice–that of life itself. Now, in a groundbreaking new fantasy novel, FEAST OF SOULS, she introduces us to a terrifying new world in which the cost of magic is just that–a world in which the fuel for sorcery is the very fire of the human spirit, and those who hunger for magical power must pay for it with their lives. In this epic tale of terrifying shadows and desperate hope, the greatest threat of all may not be that of ancient enemies returned, or ancient wars resumed, but of the darkness that lies within the hearts of men. read more…
Terms of Engagement
Founded in 1949, Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine is the award-winning original publisher of such classics as Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon, and Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz.
Each bimonthly issue offers compelling short fiction by writers such as Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Terry Bisson, along with the science-fiction field’s most respected and outspoken opinions on books, films and science–plus a dash of humor from our cartoonists and writers.
Terms of Engagement is C.S. Friedman’s contribution to this collection.
Shall We Dance?
From hags and harpies to sorceresses and sirens, this volume features twenty all-new tales that prove women are far from the weaker sex-in all their alluring, magical, and monstrous roles.
Shall we Dance? is C.S. Friedman’s contribution to this collection.
Downtime
To celebrate DAW Books’ 30 years of publishing in science fiction and fantasy genres, DAW owners/editors Elizabeth R. Wollheim and Sheila E. Gilbert gathered their literary heavy hitters into two celebratory volumes: DAW 30th Anniversary Science Fiction Anthology and DAW 30th Anniversary Fantasy Anthology.
Downtime is C.S. Friedman’s contribution to the Science Fiction Anthology.
The Wilding
It is now two hundred years since the great generals Zatar the Magnificent and Anzha lyu Mitethe pursued their vendetta among the stars, and in doing so altered the very flow of human history. The psychics of the Azean Empire have since scattered in fear, taking shelter in regions of space where neither Empire nor Holding dares follow. They are legendary creatures now, rumored to be half mad from the mental fallout of their homeworld’s destruction, surfacing but rarely to raid the civilized worlds for supplies, information…or more human trade goods. read more…
The Erciyes Fragments
This is a soucebook for White Wolf’s roleplaying game, Vampire: the Masquerade. The Erciyes Fragments is the Book of Nod from Caine’s point of view. The text is in manuscript form with learned scribblings in the margins (compliments of the various methuselahs who have come across it down through the ages).
“While this book was intended for players familiar with the White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting, some non-players have reported they enjoyed it. The Book of Nod is the legendary “bible” of the vampires, telling of their origin as the result of a biblical spat with God, outlining the parameters of their curse, and providing prophecies of horrors to come. This version was written by the first of all vampires, who has a small problem with megalomania and envisions himself as a rival to God. You see where it got him.
(Maybe if he hadn’t killed his brother, White Wolf would have given his book a title that people could pronounce)” – C.S. Friedman
