For fans of S.A. Chakraborty, Robin Hobb, and Martha Wells's Witch King, a page-turning standalone fantasy of necromancy and magical mayhem from Jenn Lyons, the acclaimed author of The Ruin of Kings. Centuries ago, necromancy almost destroyed the world. That’s how history remembers it. History remembers it wrong. Mathaiik has studied all his life to join the sacred order of the Idallik Knights, charged with defending their world from the forces of necromancy and the grim witches who practice it. Only vestiges of that cursed magic remain–nothing like the fabled days of the Grim Lords, the undead wizards who once nearly destroyed the entire world. Until monsters once more begin to wake. But something about them is even whole forests coming alive and devouring anyone so foolish as to trespass, formerly peaceful animals mutating into savage carnivores... as if the land itself has turned upon humanity, in a riot of chaotic magic the Knights quickly prove powerless to stop. It’s a good thing, then, that the Grim Lords were never truly destroyed. One of their number sleeps below the Knights' very fortress. And when an army of twisted tree monsters attacks the young initiates in his charge, Math decides to do the he wakes her up. This is only the beginning of his problems. Because said necromancer, Kaiataris, knows something history has forgotten. The threat of this wild magic is part of a cycle that has repeated countless life after death, chaos after order. And if she and Math can’t find a new way to balance the scales, this won't just be the end of the world as they know it, but the end of all life, everywhere.

In a future where mortals mingle with the gods in deep space, an out-of-date automaton, a recovering addict, and an angel try to solve the pope's murder. Dreamy, beautifully written science-fantasy with a devastating queer love-story at its heart, for fans of Becky Chambers, Gideon the Ninth, and This is How You Lose the Time War. Scribe IV is an obsolete automaton, peacefully whiling away his years on the Bastion, a secluded monastery in an abandoned corner of the galaxy. But when the visiting Pope is found murdered, Scribe IV knows he has very little time before the terrifying Sisters of the Drowned Deep rise up to punish the Bastion's residents for their crime. Quin, a recovering drug addict turned private investigator, picks up a scrambled signal from the Bastion and agrees to take the case. Traumatized by a bizarre experience in his childhood, Quin repeatedly feeds his memories to his lover, the angel Murmuration. But fragmented glimpses of an otherworldly horror he calls the crawling dark continue to haunt his dreams. Meanwhile in Heaven, an angel named Angel hears Scribe IV's prayer. Intrigued by the idea of solving a crime with mortals, xe descends to offer xer divine assistance (whether those mortals want it or not). With the Drowned Sisters closing in around the Bastion, Scribe IV, Quin, and Angel race to find out who really murdered the Pope, and why. Quin's missing memories may hold the key to the case—but is remembering worth the price?