Kindling No. 1 : The Free World Is under Attack!

The last bastions of freedom, the Kingdom of Albany and the Norse Alliance, stand at bay. They are threatened by the Empire of the Mosul, whose unstoppable forces, driven by the brutal theocracy of the Zhaithan and drawn by the promise of paradise, have already conquered most of Europe and now set their sights on the New World. There is one slim chance of salvation. Four youngsters must find each other, and themselves, to form an entity that can challenge the Dark Things, warrior demons raised by the necromancy of the Zhaithan. But the Four are widely scattered. Argo Weaver, fleeing his East Virginia home to escape a brutal stepfather, is concerned only with his own survival. Lady Cordelia Blakeney, aristocratic and decorative adjunct to the Army of Albany, cares more for the fit of her uniform than the state of the world. Jesamine is the slave-concubine of a brutal Teuton colonel. Raphael Vega, Hispanian conscript in the army of the Mosul, must hide his artistic talents from the heresy-seeking priests. And even with the help of the mysterious Yancey Slide, who may not be entirely human, the obstacles they face may well be insurmountable.

Mick Farren was born in Cheltenham, England on a wet night at the end of World War II and he has been complaining about it ever since. His fiction received attention in the late punk seventies with The DNA Cowboys cult trilogy. Through the 1980s and 1990s, he tempered cyberpunk with his own post-Burroughs, post-Lovecraft strangeness, while, at the same time functioning as a columnist, critic, recording artist, teaching a science fiction and horror course at UCLA, publishing a number of non-fiction works on popular culture, including a best selling biography of Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and the bizarre-fashion history The Black Leather, and also providing Rock & Roll lyrics for bands like Metallica, Motorhead, Brother Wayne Kramer, and others. With Kramer, he created the off-Broadway musical The Last Words Of Dutch Schultz, and he has scripted a number of TV documentaries. He emerged into the 21st century with the critically acclaimed and suitably unorthodox vampire saga The Renquist Quartet, and the forthcoming alternate world epic Flame Of Evil.

Farren currently lives in Los Angeles. His most recent non-fiction is the autobiographic Give The Anarchist A Cigarette (Jonathan Cape, UK), his most recent novel is Underland (Tor Books US), and his current CDs are People Call You Crazy: The Mick Farren Story (Sanctuary UK) and The Deviants Dr Crow (Navarre US).