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This is the story of Childeric, called The Shatterer, Last Emperor of the Eidolon Empire. He swashbuckled through a swordly and sorcerous universe...in four novels written by A. E. Phillips during the fantasy revival of the late 1960s.
This is the story of Arcadia Stanton McCauley, who spent a couple of summers being A. E. Phillips and got on with her life...until her life was over.
Only it wasn't. Not quite. Because Cady McCauley died one night on an LA freeway. But she woke up in the Eidolon Empire....
The first Childeric the Shatterer adventure was written in two weeks flat on a borrowed Royal portable in late nights fueled by black coffee and Boone's Farm Apple Wine. If Cady hadn't been desperate enough for money to try anything she would never have finished it. When it was long enough, she sent it off to a publisher called Eponym Books without even bothering to read it over.
She received a contract in the mail within the month. She didn't read that, either, except for the part that said they'd pay her fifteen hundred U.S. dollars. She had no idea of how to write a sequel; the writing that had become a grinding torture by the end of Book Two (Temptation of Masks), and Childeric had become an impotent incestuous mass-murdering alcoholic bisexual masochist.
She tried bestiality. Necrophilia. Child abuse. Cannibalism. Eponym also bought books three (Starchild Mourning) and four (City of Tombs).
By then Cady was in her junior year at college and her father gave up. He sent her a check for the last three years' worth of tuition and living expenses. When the check cleared, A. E. Phillips (Childeric's doom-laden amanuensis) was buried in an unmarked grave.
For a while.
This is the story of Arcadia Stanton McCauley, who spent a couple of summers being A. E. Phillips and got on with her life...until her life was over.
Only it wasn't. Not quite. Because Cady McCauley died one night on an LA freeway. But she woke up in the Eidolon Empire....
The first Childeric the Shatterer adventure was written in two weeks flat on a borrowed Royal portable in late nights fueled by black coffee and Boone's Farm Apple Wine. If Cady hadn't been desperate enough for money to try anything she would never have finished it. When it was long enough, she sent it off to a publisher called Eponym Books without even bothering to read it over.
She received a contract in the mail within the month. She didn't read that, either, except for the part that said they'd pay her fifteen hundred U.S. dollars. She had no idea of how to write a sequel; the writing that had become a grinding torture by the end of Book Two (Temptation of Masks), and Childeric had become an impotent incestuous mass-murdering alcoholic bisexual masochist.
She tried bestiality. Necrophilia. Child abuse. Cannibalism. Eponym also bought books three (Starchild Mourning) and four (City of Tombs).
By then Cady was in her junior year at college and her father gave up. He sent her a check for the last three years' worth of tuition and living expenses. When the check cleared, A. E. Phillips (Childeric's doom-laden amanuensis) was buried in an unmarked grave.
For a while.
599 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
Rosemary Edghill
91 books137 followersShe was born long enough ago to have seen Classic Trek on its first outing and to remember that she once thought Spock Must Die! to be great literature. As she aged, she put aside her fond dreams of taking over for Batman when he retired, and returned to her first love, writing. Her first SF sale (as Eluki Bes Shahar) was the Hellflower series, in which Damon Runyon meets Doc Smith over at the old Bester place. Between books and short stories in every genre but the Western (several dozen so far), she's held the usual selection of odd and part-time writer jobs, including bookstore clerk, secretary, beta tester for computer software, graphic designer, book illustrator, library clerk, and administrative assistant for a non-profit arts organization. She can truthfully state that she once killed vampires for a living, and that without any knowledge of medicine has illustrated half-a-dozen medical textbooks.
Her last name -- despite the efforts of editors, reviewers, publishing houses, her webmaster, and occasionally her own fingers -- is not spelled 'Edgehill'.
Also writes under the name Eluki Bes Shahar.
Her last name -- despite the efforts of editors, reviewers, publishing houses, her webmaster, and occasionally her own fingers -- is not spelled 'Edgehill'.
Also writes under the name Eluki Bes Shahar.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 15, 2015
I adored this book. I find it hard to find a really good uberhuman-human story. I especially like the elf-like characters and they can be hard to find done as well as Childeric is handled here. The human Cady McCauly adds spunk, humor, and of course, the human touch. I could really relate to her and kept plowing ahead to see how she and Childeric would interact next. Never disappointing. In places it was a dark and violent fantasy and in others it was romantic and funny to the point of making me laugh out loud. Started out a bit slow, but became a real page turner. I debated giving it four stars because of the slow start and because it needs a little cleaning up on a proofing level, but really, my enjoyment of it was five stars worth. I would definitely buy book two.
Displaying 1 of 1 review