Saint Death's Herald: Volume 2

Lanie Stones lives to love and serve Saint Death. And damn it duodecifold, Saint Death needs her-first and foremost for her ability to lay the unrestful dead to rest. Unfortunately for Lanie, the most restless of these "unrestful dead" happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones...

Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is the necromancer that Doédenna, god of Death, has been praying for.

True, she's always been more interested in books and pastries than in creating abominations and raising armies of the undead. But still-she lives to love and serve Saint Death. And damn it duodecifold, Saint Death needs her! Lanie has many talents-her powers of death magic are growing more complex and stranger every day-but first and foremost is her ability to lay the unrestful dead to their unending slumber.

Unfortunately for Lanie, the most restless of these "unrestful dead" happens to be her own great-grandfather, the powerful necromancer Irradiant Stones. After having escaped from his temporary prison, he is possessing people from all over the realms, sucking them dry of their magic and discarding their bodies when there's nothing left to take, growing stronger and stronger all the time. His ultimate goal? To return to the icy country of Skakmaht, where he died, and finish conquering the North for his own. First the North-then the world! After Irradiant takes care of his pesky great-granddaughter Lanie, that is: the only person on Athe who can stop him.

Auteur

C. S. E. Cooney is the author of World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories. Her short novel The Twice-Drowned Saint is included in Mythic Delirium’s anthology The Sinister Quartet. Other work includes Tor.com novella Desdemona and the Deep, and a poetry collection: How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, which features her Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” Her short fiction and poetry can be found in Jonathan Strahan’s anthology Dragons, Ellen Datlow’s Mad Hatters and March Hares: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and elsewhere.

Résumé
"Grisly, dark, lovely, funny, heartfelt."-Kirkus, starred review