Goatskin leaps into the world today
with her new adventure
What Rough Beast? 

Among the yak nomads, rowdy, restless young have thrown themselves into a cult of were-beasts ridden by unknown spirits, and they stalk Goatskin.

They feel evil: evil by the lights of the intruder Temple, or by the banned old beliefs? And the shaman Goatskin searches for – a sad old man who set off on a quest his people call insane – what beast does he impossibly grapple?

In the starry high meadows, what inhabits the night? Whose evil?

This is a standalone novella. But if you want to put it in the other back pocket with its fellow novella Waste Flowers, they go together nicely, and you too can look like my publisher.

Mass-market paperback, or digital — epub and pdf — can be ordered straight from the Brackenbury Books shop.

Cover art by Goran Gligović, with a black & white frontispiece by Linnea Sterte and a map by Caster Jones.

What Rough Beast? had a pre-release review by James D. Mills of The Arcanist Fantasy Publishing, in video or in written format on his blog. Quite in-depth but spoiler-free. James said:

This tale is unlike any S&S I’ve read, thus far… I am a notoriously slow reader, and as a cynical editor, prone to losing interest. I finished the book in about two nights of focused reading. That’s always a huge mark up, in my book. I was locked in…

What Rough Beast? is a strikingly unique contribution to the Sword and Sorcery lexicon, standing entirely on its own. The authorial voice is powerful, the characters are thought-provoking, the world is tangible and full of life, the plot is bloody exciting.

I hope you enjoy.