Synopses & Reviews
An immortal Muse whose very survival depends on the creativity she nurtures within her lovers
Another immortal who feeds not on artistry but on pain and torment...
A chase through time, with two people bound together in enmity and fury
Magic and science melded together into one, and an array of the famous and infamous, caught up unawares in an ages-long battle
Immortal Muse is a tale that takes the reader on a fascinating journey from Paris of the late 1300s with the alchemists Perenelle and Nicolas Flamel, to contemporary New York City. Along the way, there are interludes with Bernini in Rome in 1635; with Vivaldi in Venice of 1737; with Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier and Robespierre in the Paris of the French Revolution; with William Blake and John Polidori in 1814; with Gustav Klimt in fin de siècle Vienna; with Charlotte Salomon in WWII France. And in modern-day New York, a complicated dance of love and violence finally brings a resolution to the centuries-old deadly feud.
Review
"Mythology, alchemy and fantasy all coalesce in Leigh's
Immortal Muse, creating the perfect combination for readers looking for their next stellar read. Leigh has masterfully created a fantastical adventure for his audience...The alternating chapters of past and present will whet readers' appetites for more adventure and intrigue, and will leave them wanting more. The author weaves mythic history with a bit of action, murder and, of course, spice--and has this reader wondering why I'm only discovering him now. This is definitely a Top Pick! perfect for those craving a bit of intirgue and history." --
RT Reviews (Top Pick for
Immortal Muse)
"Leigh seamlessly inserts his two immortals into history, playing with actual people and events to deliver beautifully-rendered glimpses of different eras. Leigh strikes the perfect balance between past and present, real and imagined." -- Publishers Weekly (for Immortal Muse)
“Immortal Muse is an unforgettable tale that sweeps readers from 1300s Paris to modern-day New York.” - Risingshadow
Review
"Action, adventure, character, humor and a strong philosophical base: Stephen Leigh does it all!"
Review
"A strong story about basic issues, about making choices..."
Review
"The setting of a senescent world gripped by antiquated politics and religious beliefs, with technology serving as an uneasy accessory to relations with a distant, unsympathetic Federation, readily calls to mind the novels of Jack Vance. This is not a bad thing. Leigh writes with an ornate, but very readable, style...in this regard [Slow Fall to Dawn] offers a better read than many contemporary SF novels twice its length."
Synopsis
Set in Ireland and Chicago, The Crow of Connemara is the spellbinding tale of Colin Doyle, a young Irish-American musician drawn to his grandfather's homeland.
Entranced by the music and legends of the island, gifted with his grandfather's journal and a mysterious jewel, and bespelled by dreamlike images of a woman calling to him, Colin feels his inescapable destiny lies across the waters.
On the west coast of Ireland, in the Connemara region, the music is everything he hoped it would be, and the legends seem to come to life before his eyes. In the small town of Ballemor, Colin first encounters the woman of his dreams, Maeve Gallagher.
Maeve, a raven-haired beauty with eyes of emerald green, is the leader of a small group, the Oileanach, that has taken over the island of Inishcorr just off the coast and is making their stand against government officials determined to evict them. But Maeve and her followers are more than rebellious squatters--they are the living embodiment of ancient ways, of a time before mortals ruled the lands. And Inishcorr is their last hope for survival, their portal to the place they are meant to be.
But to open that portal, Maeve needs the willing assistance of her chose bard: Colin. Yet even as Colin falls under her enchantment, Maeve too must struggle against emotions she cannot afford to recognize. For to allow herself to truly care for Colin could spell the end of her people's hopes, dreams, and very existence.
Synopsis
Neweden is a world whose gods are death and fate, and its here that the Hoorka have arisen: a guild of assassins, whose single law is that the victim must always retain a tiny but finite chance of escape. If the victim can survive until dawn, they may go free. But the rich and powerful dont care to have their will thwarted, and so the Hoorka must deal with the consequences of their own ethics. Gyll, the leader of the Hoorka, also has dreams of taking the guild offworld into the growing society of the Alliance, which is trying to reconstruct a shattered, worlds-spanning empire. Is that dream a genuine possibility, or will exposure to other cultures doom the Hoorka entirely? Gyll must confront internal struggles within his own people, the dangerous politics of Neweden, and the twinned threat and promise of the Alliance. The Hag of Death dances around them, mockingly. Can the Hoorka survive to see the dawn of their own success, an Assassins Dawn?
Synopsis
The Crow of Connemara is a contemporary Celtic fantasy set primarily in Ireland. Picking up threads from ancient Irish mythology and folktales, this story is fantasy, drama, and tragic romance all at once, a tale caught in the dark places where the world of ancient myth intersects our own, where old ways and old beliefs struggle not to be overwhelmed by the modern world.
Colin Doyle is young Irish-American musician from Chicago, whose interest is traditional Irish music. Maeve Gallagher is an Oileánach, an "Islander" from Ireland's west coast. Islanders are outcasts treated with suspicion by the locals, who think them responsible for wild and strange happenings in the area. Colin soon discovers that he's connected to Maeve in ways he never could have imagined.
About the Author
Stephen Leigh is a Cincinnati-based, award-winning author with nineteen science fiction novels and over forty short stories published. He has been a frequent contributor to the Hugo-nominated shared world series Wild Cards, edited by George R. R. Martin. He teaches creative writing at Northern Kentucky University. Stephen Leigh has written the fantasy trilogy Assassin's Dawn, Immortal Muse, and The Crow of Connemara. He can be found at farrelworlds.com.