A Rhapsody For the Eternal

This collection of stories is a complex gilded clock where gears in the future clank against the cogs of the past. Behind it all lies the mystery of human destiny. This is a new science that smells of dusty books and ancient secrets, things beyond human understanding. Speegle haunts his own stories with delicate insinuations of something more, something deeper. Yet even at the surface these stories breathe with tension. From the Tiptoeing Monk unraveling the riddle of a nursery rhyme to the parents of the first ghost born in centuries, these fantasies feel real and the people, though from a different time, are compelling in a way that our actual neighbors rarely are.

From the Inside Flap

"...Speegle's voice and worldview are bizarre and mesmerizing, humane and compelling, and the stories contained in this collection will fry your mind. Bleeding between horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, as well as all things heartbreaking and nerve-wracking, Speegle's stories could best be described--if it's possible to describe them at all, and I'm not sure they should be--as 'the savage cerebral' something you've not encountered much before. That's because Speegle doesn't write fast enough. You'll agree with that last statement before you're halfway through this exceptional collection." --5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner Gary A. Braunbeck, author of Coffin County and Far Dark Fields "Darren Speegle is a remarkable new writer." --Lucius Shepard, author of Softspoken "Darren Speegle's characters, and their situations--in his often brilliant stories--are brought vibrantly, horrifically to life, because he cares about his characters, the stories he tells through them, and the words he chooses, with such great care, to bring them to the printed page. He's among the best writers I've read; sitting down with his new collection, Rhapsody, was a real joy for me both as a reader, and as a writer." --T.M. Wright, author of Blue Canoe and Bone Soup "Darren Speegle is a real discovery." -- Graham Joyce, author of The Exchange

From the Back Cover

"Elegant, sometimes intense and horrific but always finely crafted and devious in the best way, these stories will delight and entertain fans of dark fantasy." --Jeff Vandermeer, author of Shriek: An Afterword

About the Author

Darren Speegle, an American writer, lives in Germany and currently works in the Middle East. When he's not jumping around the world (and often while he is), he's trying to come to terms with all the strangeness through his fiction. He is the author of Gothic Wine, A Dirge for the Temporal, and the forthcoming Relics. Current projects include the novels The Third Twin and Veils. Find his short fiction in such publications as Subterranean, Postscripts, and Crimewave.

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