Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard
Part of the Barsk series:
Editions:Kindle

An historian who speaks with the dead is ensnared by the past. A child who feels no pain and who should not exist sees the future. Between them are truths that will shake worlds.

To break the Fant's control of koph, an offworld shadow group attempts to force the Fant to surrender their knowledge. Jorl, a Fant Speaker with the dead, is compelled to question his deceased best friend, who years ago mysteriously committed suicide. In so doing, Jorl unearths a secret the powers that be would prefer to keep buried forever. Meanwhile, his dead friend's son, a physically challenged young Fant named Pizlo, is driven by disturbing visions to take his first unsteady steps toward an uncertain future.

Published:
Publisher: 
Genres:
Excerpt:
Reviews:Robert J. Sawyer wrote:

Weird, wise, and worldly, BARSK: THE ELEPHANTS' GRAVEYARD is a triumph.

Walter Jon Williams wrote:

The second you encounter the arboreal uplifted elephants who speak with the dead, you know you're reading a work of singular imaginative power. It's a delight from beginning to end.

James L. Cambias wrote:

A captivating, heartwarming story in a unique and fantastic world... as rich and mysterious as DUNE.

Max Gladstone wrote:

A heartfelt and wonderfully weird book: a space opera about kindness and memory.

Charles E. Gannon wrote:

A masterful, onion-layered tale of pariahdom, treachery, and genocide that ultimately reveals the true deathlessness of hope and love.

Karl Schroeder wrote:

Combines excellent characters and a fascinating world. What really makes it work is how he deftly weaves together startling SFnal ideas with character-based intrigue. You'll really care for these characters, even as you find them believably alien. I found it a compulsive page-turner and immensely enjoyable.

Howard Tayler wrote:

Powerful. Grand in scope, yet deeply intimate. Schoen gives anthropomorphism some serious spirituality. It got inside my head in the way that only an exciting new idea can.