1810. While Europe burns and the Napoleonic Wars set the world aflame, the HMS Fortitude patrols the sea lanes of the South Pacific, harrying the enemies of the British Crown.
The Fortitude's captain has set his sights on a Spanish galleon weighted down with a fortune in gold and spices, but Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure thinks the prize not worth the risk.
When the ship is smashed by storms and driven far into unknown seas, the galleon and her treasure lost in the tempest, Bonaventure and the rest of the Fortitude's crew find themselves aground on an island in uncharted waters. They soon discover that beneath the island's veneer of beauty lurks a dark secret: an ancient evil buried at the living heart of a volcano.
"Chris Roberson is one of that bold band of young writers who are taking the stuff of genre fiction and turning it into a whole new literary form - a form for the 21st century. A talented storyteller, he has a unique ear, a clever eye, an eloquence all too rare in modern fiction."
- Michael Moorcock
The Fortitude's captain has set his sights on a Spanish galleon weighted down with a fortune in gold and spices, but Lieutenant Hieronymus Bonaventure thinks the prize not worth the risk.
When the ship is smashed by storms and driven far into unknown seas, the galleon and her treasure lost in the tempest, Bonaventure and the rest of the Fortitude's crew find themselves aground on an island in uncharted waters. They soon discover that beneath the island's veneer of beauty lurks a dark secret: an ancient evil buried at the living heart of a volcano.
"Chris Roberson is one of that bold band of young writers who are taking the stuff of genre fiction and turning it into a whole new literary form - a form for the 21st century. A talented storyteller, he has a unique ear, a clever eye, an eloquence all too rare in modern fiction."
- Michael Moorcock
Chris Roberson's short fiction can be found in various anthologies and in the pages of Asimov's, Postscripts, and Subterranean Magazine. His novels include Here, There & Everywhere (Pyr, 2005), The Voyage of Night Shining White (PS Publishing, 2006), and Paragaea: A Planetary Romance (Pyr, 2006), and he is the editor of the anthology Adventure Vol. 1 (MonkeyBrain Books, Nov 2005). Roberson has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and twice for the Sidewise Award for Best Alternate History Short Form (winning in 2004 with his story "O One"). Along with business partner and spouse Allison Baker, Roberson is the co-owner of MonkeyBrain Books, an independent publishing house specializing in genre fiction and non-fiction genre studies.
