The Reign of the Departed: The High and Faraway, Book One

By: Greg Keyes

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Synopsis: A young man looking for death finds purpose in a world beyond our own in this sweeping fantasy from Greg Keyes (The Briar King, Newton&’s Cannon). Errol Greyson hadn&’t intended to commit suicide. Or so he told himself. But waking up after his &“cry for help&” in the body of a wood-and-metal construct magically animated by Aster?the strange girl from school?was not a result he could have imagined. Aster&’s wild explanations of a quest to find the water of health that would cure her father seemed as unreal as her description of Errol&’s own half-dead existence, his consciousness stuck in an enchanted automaton while his real body was in a coma from which it might never wake. And of course, they would need to recruit a girl?a virgin, no less?who had been dead for thirty years, to lead them through something called the Pale, beyond which a bunch of magical kingdoms existed. Plus, the threat that Aster could turn him off like a light switch, sending him into a hellish oblivion, was a convincing incentive to cooperate. It all seemed quite mad: Either Aster was nuts, or Errol was hallucinating. But if it meant a new chance at life, he reckoned it was worth playing along.