Lucius Shepard’s Beautiful Blood is something both special and long awaited: the first novel-length exploration of the world of the Dragon Griaule. It’s a subject that has preoccupied Shepard since the publication of “The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule” in 1984, and he has returned to it repeatedly over the years, though never before in such a mesmerizing, all-encompassing fashion. Like the initial tale, Beautiful Blood begins in the 1850s in the town of Teocinte, in a world “separated from our own by the thinnest margin of possibility.” It is a landscape whose dominant feature is the massive, long-dormant body of an ancient dragon that has lain there motionless, for millennia,...

‘These six stories explore ground far from the high fantasy with which dragons are frequently associated. Fans of Shepard’s unusual and often powerful Griaule tales will be delighted to have them all in one place’ Publishers Weekly ‘His work is daring and unsettling in the way art should be’ Kirkus Reviews ‘A writer with breathtaking ability’ Locus ‘One of the finest science fiction writers of all time’ Science Fiction Chronicle Lucius Taylor Shepard was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1947. He travelled extensively in his youth, and has held a wide assortment of occupations in the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America,...

Lucius Shepard is a grand master of dark fantasy, famed for his baroque yet utterly contemporary visions of existential subversion and hallucinatory collapse. In Dagger Key, his fifth major story collection, Shepard confronts hard-bitten loners and self-deceiving operators with the shadowy emptiness within themselves and the insinuating darkness without, to ends sardonic and terrifying. The stories in this book, including six novellas (one original to this volume) are:   “Stars Seen Through Stone”—in a small Pennsylvania town, mediocrity suddenly blossoms into genius; but at what terrible cost?   “Emerald Street Expansions”—in near-future Seattle, echoes of the life of a medieval...

Life the second time around is short, strange and terrifying to the awakened. One "zombie", victim of a bizarre scientific obsession, breaks away, leaving a trail of muder and miracle as he flees the Project and the horror his "life" hasbecome. Green Eyes is a book that has no respect for genre. Throughout its course, the novel spans the whole of the nebulous speculative fiction genre, taking on the appearance of science fiction, fantasy and horror all in turn. Perhaps the best way to describe it is as American Gothic. Or even as a love story. If this sounds like an alarming mish-mash, don't worry, Lucius Shepard blends these ingredients together with consummate skill. If you...

QUARTERED ABOARD THE FREIGHTER, VIATOR, run aground twenty years before on a remote section of the Alaskan coast, the four men hired to determine the ship’s worth at salvage have begun to exhibit a variety of eccentric behaviors. They’ve become obsessed with Viator to the point that the world beyond seems of consequence only as it relates to the ship. When their putative leader, Thomas Wilander, is afflicted by a series of disturbing dreams, he concludes that something on board may be responsible for their erraticism. He seeks the help of a woman in the nearby village of Kaliaska and together they initiate an investigation into the history of Viator, hoping to learn, among other things, why...

Steel Rails, Brittle Lives In early 1998, author Lucius Shepard embarked on a new journey…Shepard joined the “hobo nation”—riding the rails throughout the western half of the United States, his “neighbors” the disenfranchised, the homeless, the punks, the gangs, and the joy riders. At the time, the Freight Train Riders of America (FTRA) were making headlines across the country: Were they an organized gang using the U.S. rail system to rape and murder, to smuggle illegal drugs, and to terrorize unsuspecting train-hoppers? Or, were the FTRA members simply a “brotherhood,” united for support and companionship only? While investigating the facts for an article that appeared in the July...

VACANCY & ARIEL For many of us, the Ace Double Novels of the ’50s and ’60s have long been a source both of pleasure and nostalgia. This new double volume from Subterranean Press stands squarely in that distinguished tradition, offering a pair of colorful, fast-paced novellas from one of the finest writers currently working in any genre: Lucius Shepard. In Vacancy, a washed-up actor, a mysterious motel, and a Malaysian “woman of power” form the central elements in a riveting account of a rootless man forced to confront the impossible—but very real—demons of his past. This is Shepard at his harrowing, hallucinatory best. Ariel brilliantly transmutes some traditional SF...