Books published by publisher Homunculus

Shadrak the Unseen should have known better. Stealing from one wizard on behalf of another was the sort of job he'd sworn never to take. But times were tough and grief had left its mark. The thing that should have really warned him off, though, was that the artifact he'd been commissioned to retrieve was a ring crafted by none other than the Witch Queen of Thogani, the Desecrated City. With the job half-done, Shadrak is caught between the minions of one wizard and the threats of the other. If he could just get the ring back to Pellor and the Stygian sorcerer who'd hired him, he'd have enough money to appease his creditors and buy himself some time. But then his pockets are picked, the ring is taken, and the thief...is a ghost, silent, invisible. Not daring to return to Pellor without the prize, Shadrak has no choice but to follow a barely discernible trail toward the last place in the world he wants to go: New Londdyr, the greatest city on Aethir, where he once lorded it over the unified guilds. And where the Senate have named him wanted.... Dead or Alive.

Fantasy Faction semifinalist for the SPFBO 2018A babe is born in the shadows of the ravine city, a child who will end the self-imposed exile of the dwarves and usher in a new age of glory.Years later, Ravine Guard Carnac Thayn discovers a break-in at the Scriptorium. A dwarf has been murdered and a book stolen, but the ruling council do nothing.Then, when Carn is called to investigate thuds and crashes from the mines, old horror rises from the deep, and the city is threatened with slaughter.Rumors begin to circulate about a mythical axe said to be lost below the earth, an axe wielded by the dwarf lords of old that might just be the last hope of a race marked to die.But deception is rife, and unseen forces manipulate all paths to the future.It is a pivotal moment for the dwarves, and Carn must make a choice that will either save or damn his people.Blood will flow in rivers through the ravine. Friends will become foes. A name will be forgotten.And a hero will rise.

Awakened from an induced year-long slumber, the Nameless Dwarf is tortured with memories of slaughter and must come to terms with who he has become: an outcast, a butcher, the most reviled of dwarven-kind.As forces of unimaginable destruction coalesce around the mountain fortress of a mad sorcerer, the philosopher Aristodeus puts together a team for a last desperate attempt to avert the coming cataclysm:A knight besieged by doubts, who has been prepared since a child for the current crisis, yet is crumbling under the pressure of the task before him;An albino assassin who denies the truth of what he really is;A woman with a black sword as disturbing as the axe responsible for the massacre at Arx Gravis;And a dwarf with no name, who will either carve out the path of his own redemption or condemn the world to a night that will never end.

Plague strikes the city of Sarum, and the dead rise from their graves.The lich, Dr. Cadman, has discovered a long-hidden artifact and perverted its power for his own selfish ends.But an ancient evil from beyond the stars is drawn by its use and turns hungry eyes upon the Earth. These are the times of Unweaving, the times Deacon Shader has been prepared for since the day he was born.A man of prayer, deeply troubled by a contradictory faith, he is also the deadliest warrior of his generation.As events spiral out of control, and Creation itself hangs by a thread, the paradox at the heart of Shader’s life may just be the last desperate hope of all the worlds.Contains:Book 1: Sword of the ArchonBook 2: Best Laid PlansBook 3: The Unweaving"... an epic fantasy across three books that is wild, fast-paced, has fantastic characters, spreads across countries as well as worlds and religions, and is absolutely one of the best fantasy trilogies in existence." -- Melinda LeBaron"Derek Prior has quickly established himself as one of the strongest talents to have emerged in the fantasy fiction field in recent years." -- Laurence S."The "Shader" series brings world-building to a new level." -- Fandi"This is a world full of magic and fantasy, hyper-religiosity and backwardness, evil and brutality, loyalty and treachery, and unflinching heroism in the form of the extraordinary hero, Deacon Shader, a ferocious warrior forced to be a man of religion because of circumstances, gruff, stiff, unfriendly – yet noble, loyal and kind." -- Ranger

It was the place they stored the junk no one wanted anymore: discarded toys, baby clothes, and ancient secrets from forgotten generations.But when contagion turns Wesley Harding’s world insane, and horror enters his home, the attic is the last place left to hide.At nine years old, he finds himself alone in the dark, amid heaped-up piles of the familiar and the unknown. Gunshots and howls punctuate the thunderstorm outside. Crashes and groans come from below. There isn’t much time, and Wesley must uncover the secrets of the attic, if he is to survive the night.

For centuries, no one had heard a peep out of Verusia, the dark stain at the heart of the Templum’s empire.But when a messenger arrives in the Holy City of Aeterna, bearing news that the fortresses along the border have mysteriously been abandoned, and the three-hundred men of Trajinot’s garrison have been impaled outside the city walls, word is, the Lich Lord is on the move again.As an army of the dead waits within the shadow-black trees of the Schwarzwald, the Templum gathers its troops for war.Captain Deacon Shader leads the Seventh Horse, a heavy cavalry troop now deemed obsolete. One charge, one chance is their motto. Time it right, and the tide of any battle can be turned; get it wrong, and it could all be over.When the two forces face off outside the walls of Trajinot, it is not just the hordes of undeath the Templum must fight. Intangible terror poisons the air, driving seasoned warriors to panic.Only the Elect knights of the Seventh Horse have the discipline to stand their ground; yet facing a fear doesn’t mean it will do you no harm, and for Shader, there are worse things than wounds of the flesh.The Seventh Horse is the second Shader Origins novella (the first is Ward of the Philosopher). The Origins novellas provide an introduction to the bestselling Shader series:1. Sword of the Archon2. Best Laid Plans3. The Unweaving

One by one, the guilds of New Jerusalem fall to Shadrak the Unseen and his accomplice, the poisoner Albert. But as the battle for supremacy comes to a head, Shadrak is given a new order by the mysterious Archon: kill his closest living friend, the Nameless Dwarf.The philosopher Aristodeus persuades the Archon to stay his hand, proposing instead three quests that will free Nameless from the curse of the black axe that led him to slaughter his own people.But the plan has perils of its own: a visit to the fire giant’s lair at the heart of a volcano; a daring raid on the Liche Lord’s castle in darkest Verusia; and a confrontation with the son of the Demiurgos in the depths of the Abyss.Even with the incomparable partnership of Shadrak and Nameless, the quests seem doomed to failure, and so Aristodeus tries once more to entice Deacon Shader back to the fight.But Shader is a changed man, more given to drink than the sword, and if he should discover the secret Rhiannon and Aristodeus have kept from him these past four years, the quests are sure to come to a crashing halt before they even get off the ground.Friendship, scheming, and the worst horrors imaginable combine to test the companions to the limits, and despair dark enough to corrode even the most unwavering faith awaits those not destined to return.

Set in the world of the Nameless Dwarf...Shadrak the Unseen should have known better. Stealing from one wizard on behalf of another was the sort of job he’d sworn never to take. But times were tough and grief had left its mark.The thing that should have really warned him off, though, was that the artifact he’d been commissioned to retrieve was a ring crafted by none other than the Witch Queen of Thogani, the Desecrated City.With the job half-done, Shadrak is caught between the minions of one wizard and the threats of the other. If he could just get the ring back to Pellor and the Stygian sorcerer who’d hired him, he’d have enough money to appease his creditors and buy himself some time.But then his pockets are picked, the ring is taken, and the thief… is a ghost, silent, invisible.Not daring to return to Pellor without the prize, Shadrak has no choice but to follow a barely discernible trail toward the last place in the world he wants to go:New Londdyr, the greatest city on Aethir, where he once lorded it over the unified guilds.And where the Senate have named him wanted…DEAD OR ALIVE

Alone, bereft, and unable to forgive himself for the slaughter at the ravine, the Nameless Dwarf swears to do one last thing, even if it kills him:With Nils Fargin, the son of a Jeridium guild lord as his guide, Nameless pursues the survivors among the dwarves, hoping to convince them that the curse of the Black Axe has been lifted from him and they are safe to return home.The trail leads to the town of Malfen—a nest of cutthroats and the gateway to Cerreth, the Land of Nightmare, which would be suicide for the dwarves to enter.Nameless and Nils join forces with a shapeshifting assassin and a sorcerer under the sway of a dubious magical grimoire for the hazardous journey into Cerreth. It soon becomes apparent their new companions have agendas of their own.With threats from within and horror on every side, Nameless knows that time is running out for his people. The only surprise is that they have lasted so long.But new hope awaits him in a city beneath the waves—if he can first survive the unstoppable evil that destroyed the dwarf lords of old.

Shader has failed and Sektis Gandaw now holds all the pieces of the Statue of Eingana. Despair hangs like a pall over the battered armies of Sahul and Aeterna. It’s now just a matter of time …A sliver of hope comes in the form of Shadrak the Unseen, who has the means to travel to the source of the coming cataclysm, the black mountain at the heart of the Dead Lands on Aethir.But Shader, Shadrak, and Rhiannon discover that Aethir brings a new set of challenges: the Sour Marsh—an oozing malignancy from the nightmare realm of Qlippoth; an arrogant senate that seeks to appease rather than fight; and a volatile secret at the heart of the ravine city of Arx Gravis: a dwarf with no name who could prove the most stalwart of allies… or the deadliest of foes.Old love has turned sour and regrets run deep. Shader is sick of killing, but can see no other way. Rhiannon’s last defense against all she has lost is a self-destructive rage; and Shadrak’s niggling conscience is causing him more trouble than he needs. Loyalties are called into question, yet all three must bury their differences if they are to find a way into Sektis Gandaw’s impregnable base and prevent the Unweaving of all things.

"Dead Jack is wicked fun! Undead noir with a devious sense of humor. Highly recommended!" ― Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Patient Zero and Rot & RuinJACK WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR DUST―MAYBE EVEN SAVE THE WORLD!Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device kicks off a wild and irreverent fantasy / horror series following the exploits of a zombie detective and his homunculus frenemy. In the fast-paced novel, the drug-addicted zombie detective and his shapeshifting sidekick battle and outsmart supernatural creatures, from tough-guy leprechauns to sex-obsessed shark women and insane bat gods, in a hellish, alternate New York City of the 1940s.The series is being developed for film and TV. Read Dead Jack and the Pandemonium Device now before it hits the screen!The book also features three interior illustrations.BOOKS IN THE SERIES:DEAD JACK AND THE PANDEMONIUM DEVICE (BOOK 1)DEAD JACK AND THE SOUL CATCHER (BOOK 2)DEAD JACK AND THE OLD GODS (BOOK 3 -- COMING SOON!)

Deacon Shader is a child out of time, removed as a baby from his Ancient world parents and raised on the Isle of Maranore.On his seventh birthday, the philosopher Aristodeus arrives to commence the boy’s training with sword and mind. Nothing short of excellence will suffice, if Deacon is to fulfill his destiny and avert the Unweaving of all things.But as Aristodeus pushes him to the limits, reavers are spotted approaching the coast, and a cloud of horror descends upon the village.For these are no ordinary pirates. They sail under the Impaled Man, the grisly flag of Verusia, land of the undead and realm of the Lich Lord.