Dust of the Dead

by Michael R. Fletcher

DUST OF THE DEAD

In the peaceful decades since the Qalil War, Aakifah has gained a few pounds and taken a job as shairf of Basrah. Days from retirement, her plans for a quiet life are shattered when a local family is murdered, their daughters taken by pyumah, a race of ravenous predators.

Aakifah sets out with a handful of volunteers, including her lover, in what she knows to be a doomed rescue attempt. Even if the monsters haven't already devoured their prey by the time she finds them, a handful of farmers will be no match for the terrifying creatures.

Young Khayrat studies to be a lumin, speaking to the listening world to bring light to civilization. When her father is assassinated, she volunteers to learn the dark art of the unraveller. Like any act of imploratory, her studies come with a price. With each unravelling, her mind fragments, her sanity fraying as she forgets the peaceful woman she once was.
Khayrat travels with a band of hardened killers, intent on assassinating the foreign royal family. Driven by her need for vengeance, she swears to reduce her king’s enemies to dust.



EARLY PRAISE FOR DUST OF THE DEAD
“Michael Fletcher was a fine writer out of the gate, but with Dust of the Dead he’s hit a new level. It’s a wonderfully inventive tale with bags of imagination scattered in all directions, and exciting magic that manages to be both familiar and different at the same time. I expect excellent world-building from this guy but what really elevated it was the quality of the character work, tying everything together emotionally for a story I could really invest in on all levels. This is a tale that just works. Read it!”
–Mark Lawrence, author of Prince of Thorns

“Absolutely literally bloody superb!”
–Anna Smith Spark, author of Empires of Dust

“With Dust of the Dead, Fletcher has cemented his position as one of the most consistently brilliant must-read authors in the fantasy genre. This is an absolutely amazing fantasy adventure and among my top favorite fantasy reads ever.”
–Dyrk Ashton, author of the Paternus trilogy

“Fletcher’s best, most intense work so far, and I am desperate to see more!”
–Grimdark Magazine

“Heroic Fantasy with a protagonist my aching knees truly related to. I loved every page!”
–Rob Hayes, Author of The God Eater Saga

“Gritty in the same measure as it emotional, Dust of the Dead is a truly immersive and deliciously intertwined dark fantasy epic from a modern master of story craft. It’s highly unfair that Fletcher just keeps getting better and better.
—Ben Galley, author of the Emaneska Series

“Essential dark fantasy, unwavering in its humanity. I couldn't get enough.”
–Rob Leigh, author of Performances of a Death Metal Bard

“Heart and humanity. Dust of the Dead solidifies Fletcher on my list of all-time favorite authors.”
–Pete Reviews Books

“Fletcher weaves horror, heart, tragedy, and humor. One of my favorite reading experiences this year!”
–Z.B. Steele author of Whispers of the Storm

Genres: Fantasy

402 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication August 3, 2026

About the author

Michael R. Fletcher lives in the endless suburban sprawl north of Toronto. He dreams of trees and seeing the stars at night and being a ninja. He is an unrepentant whiskey-swilling reprobate of the tallest order and thinks grilled cheese sandwiches are a food group.

His novels include the Manifest Delusions trilogy (BEYOND REDEMPTION, THE MIRROR'S TRUTH, A WAR TO END ALL), the Obsidian Path trilogy (BLACK STONE HEART, SHE DREAMS IN BLOOD, AN END TO SORROW), the City of Sacrifice trilogy (SMOKE AND STONE, ASH AND BONES, SIN AND SORROW), and the standalone novels, SWARM AND STEEL, GHOSTS OF TOMORROW, THE MILLENNIAL MANIFESTO, NORYLSKA GROANS (co-written with Clayton W. Snyder). He also has a short story collection A COLLECTION OF OBSESSIONS.

http://michaelrfletcher.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelRFlet...

Twitter: @FletcherMR

Instagram: fletcher_michael_r

Reviews

[Michael Fletcher]

I’ll call this one either “dark heroic fantasy” or possibly "Heroic dark fantasy."
Obviously, the difference is HYUGE!

The cover art, an acrylic painting, is the work of Adam Burke.
I’ve long dreamed of an old-school painted cover so this is scratching yet another delusion off my bucket list.

[James’ RocBottomReviews 🐦‍⬛ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah The Dust of The Dead. A book I can truly relate to.

As I make my way closer to retirement my feet ache, knees crack and shoulders hurt. So having a fantasy book written about two protagonists a little past their prime? Just perfect for me. 😉

And what a book it is.

There’s been a murder/kidnapping. The Sharif Aakifah is tasked with the safe return of those taken and bringing the perpetrator to justice.

Unfortunately for her, Pyumah are involved (these creatures are vicious and terrifying). Thus. it becomes the most dangerous assignment she’s ever been given.

The other character we follow is Khayrat. Fourty years ago undertaking a mission of vengeance. Her weapon the dark art of unravelling.

To say this unravelling is disturbing is an understatement. As cool as this magic is…it’s also quite haunting. With ash carried about by the breeze in its aftermath.

The build up for our two main characters to potentially intersect is excellently done. Was just glued to these pages in this deadly world. It plays out in perfect Grimdark fashion too.

A big fan of Fletchers work I’m once again singing his praises here. While there is some light humour it’s more sword and sorcery dark fantasy. I know dark heroic fantasy or heroic dark fantasy is its billing. So ya, it’s that too. In any description, I thought it was unsettling and mesmerizingly great.

Thanks to the author for providing this ARC.

[Charles Cavendish · Rating 5 out of 5]

To quote Mark Lawrence, this is indeed "a great book".

A brutal magic system that requires those wielding it to cannibalise their own bodies is just the start of the fun our dear author has in store for us. As you would expect from a Michael R Fletcher book this is a dark tale, a mystery with a backdrop of forty years of horrific war and two ageing protagonists who sacrificed their humanity in the course of that war.

Its these two central characters, Aakifah and Khayrat that for me are the stars of the story. Despite the ravages of war and toil their magic has taken on their bodies they will fight to the end for what is most important to them. Thrown in some brilliant creatures including the Pyumah (in my mind a cross between big cats and xenomorphs) and I guarantee you'll be as gripped by this book as I was.

[Grimdark_dude · Rating 5 out of 5]

To quote the great Mark Lawrence “This is a great book!” Holly hell is this a great book! This stand out work will without a doubt cement MIchael R. Fletcher as a must read Grimdark author! The magic system and world building is second to none. I cannot wait to see what else he is able to do with this world and will be following along closely for the series to continue!

[Saif Shaikh | Distorted Visions · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ARC review aims to be as Spoiler-free as possible.

Score: ☠️☠️☠️💀

The madman Michael R. Fletcher is back with another look into a brand new world, just as violent and insane as we have come to expect. Dust of the Dead is a standalone set in a new dark fantasy world known as The Listening World and is a tale of tragedy, destruction, and the spoken word made reality, with all the horrors that entails.

This is (very close to) grimdark.

Author Michael R. Fletcher has been the Crown Prince of Modern GrimDark (Mad Prince if you believe the voices) and his works have found a cult following in dark fantasy and grimdark spaces. Known for his gruesomely enjoyable Manifest Delusions and The Obsidian Path (among others) series, Fletcher doesn’t shy away from pushing the boundaries of the depravity of the human condition. His magic systems always open new opportunities of maniacal creativity, and Dust of the Dead proves to be a continuation of his deviant art.

Set in The Listening World with vaguely African/Middle Eastern analogs, especially with the character names, Dust of the Dead follows two timelines anchored around a war between two neighboring kingdoms, Malaga and Qina, following the two main POV characters, finally clashing together after suitably explosive revelations into the bloody crescendo.

The Listening World is full of non-human species, having their own impacts on the central conflict, while also filling out the world, its history, and its magic systems. One of the central external antagonists are the dreaded pyumah (no prizes for guessing the real world analog here), a gigantic predatory six-limbed feline warrior species, with their own tyrant Queen of Queens, ready to rid the world of the pesky bipeds. Along with the pyumah we have other arachnid-esque horrors and a lumbering-but-sophisticated species, very adept at Imploratory, Fletcher’s magic-system in The Listening World.

Fletcher has been known for his unique (by that I mean maniacal) magic systems. From his delusions-create-reality system in Manifest Delusions to the whole host of necromancy and inter-dimensional horror in his City of Sacrifice and The Obsidian Path trilogies, Fletcher has never shied away from pushing the envelope on dark fantasy magics to the very edge of belief. In Dust of the Dead, the world itself can “listen” to spells and incantations to create great structures by altering wood (Arkiteks) or stone (Masoniks) or wreak untold horror via fire (Infernik), or undoing the very structure of the living (Unravelers).

“I will learn how to do evil, so I can do good.”

In Dust of the Dead we follow Khayrat, a budding Malagan Lumin (light worker) drawn into the larger war when her father is killed and she is tasked to learn the darker art to become an Unraveler to wreak mass-destruction on the Qinan side. Through her eyes we get a glimpse into the present-day horrors of the war, where implorators on both sides cause wanton destruction, while Khayrat has to struggle with mastering, and using the darkest art of all, to win the war, and avenge her father’s death.

“I’m too old to die a heroic death”

Forty years after the war, we follow Aakifah, a war-jaded veteran, now a plump, hedonistic, and close-to-retirement shairf (village chief/sheriff) of Basrah, a podunk town on the edge of the larger war decades ago. Aakifah has survived the horrors of the war, a scarred Augmentor (body-enchancer) and wishes to spend the rest of her days buried in drink and sloth, happy to forget the past. When the dreaded pyumah abduct twins from the outskirts of her city, she is forced to band together a rag-tag group of unlikely heroes and give chase, knowing that it is a lost cause.

Dust of the Dead is a great example to illustrate the journey of an author’s craft. Having read most (if not all) of Fletcher’s major offerings through the years, I have watched his craft being honed into a sharpened voice in the genre. While Manifest Delusions felt special with its horrifyingly special magic systems and narrative choices, it was rough around the edges and held its raw beginner-author’s heart on full display. Now, several years and novels later, Fletcher has balanced his mania into a more mature offering. Moving away from “grimdark” (which Fletcher admits is a tacked on description), the author describes Dust of the Dead as “heroic dark fantasy”, or “heroic dark fantasy”, depending on the reader’s outlook.

While the overt, nigh-hysterical mass-destruction of The Obsidian Path does creep into certain sections, Dust of the Dead reads as more controlled, almost more restrained, even at its most violent moments. Fan of the author’s more pathological action set-pieces may be a tad disappointed by the reduced scale of wanton terror in this book, while others who brushed off his over-the-top ultraviolence with an eye-roll may find his newest offering to be more to their liking.

Dust of the Dead succeeds in the most unlikely ways… around the edges. Fletcher creates a robust backdrop to his world with lengthy epigraphs highlighting the histories of the world in Khayrat’s chapters, and the horrors of war told through those in Aakifah’s chapters. These open out the possibilities of more stories being told and I would hate to see Fletcher abandon this project. Everyone loves a good Die-Hard-ish grumbling old hero schtick, and Aakifah’s does it well. Khayrat follows a more tried-and-true “war destroys souls” motif of the grimdark genre, and follows and altogether predictable trajectory. Even though both the timelines showcase stereotypical aspects of the genre, Fletcher attempted to fuse them into something more novel. His new magic system felt like a near inversion of his delusions-based magic system, since the wielders had to be much more intentional with their magic, or face catastrophic consequences.

I enjoyed my time with Dust of the Dead, though I had my own quibbles. Fletcher has struggled with sticking the landings on his series in the past, and sadly Dust of the Dead proves to follow that unfortunate path, to some extent. The standalone format of this novel also doesn’t lend very well to fully exploring a fleshed-out plot, and Dust of the Dead was a very character- and world-driven book, with a traditionally predictable dark fantasy/grimdark plot highlighting the bog-standard “war is hell” “man is wolf to man” standards of the genre. The side characters show moments of spark but sadly get sidelined as plot-pushers, which I would attribute to the constraints of the standalone format.

I reckon that this standalone will be one of many anthology entries following different characters, set in The Listening World. I hope the author finds new delusional ways to spin new tales in this world, because we are all listening, lest our own sanity be truly unraveled!

Advanced Review Copy provided in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Michael Fletcher for providing a review copy.

Read this review and more on my Medium page: Distorted Visions

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[Lorina Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first met Michael R. Fletcher through Five Rivers Publishing, back in 2012 when the Earth was new and unicorns roamed the land. Then came Michael with his grimdark tales, and his captivating storytelling. The unicorns fled the darkness. In their place came a character known as 88, and an eponymous novel I was thrilled to publish. But then Five Rivers Publishing went the way of the unicorns, and 88 fled back to her progenitor, reintroduced as Ghosts of Tomorrow.

Since then, Michael has produced 12 other novels, and now in August 2026 yet another, Dust of the Dead (Tales from the Listening World).

The marketing blurb for Dust of the Dead:

In the peaceful decades since the Qalil War, Aakifah has gained a few pounds and taken a job as shairf of Basrah. Days from retirement, her plans for a quiet life are shattered when a local family is murdered, their daughters taken by pyumah, a race of ravenous predators.

Aakifah sets out with a handful of volunteers, including her lover, in what she knows to be a doomed rescue attempt. Even if the monsters haven't already devoured their prey by the time she finds them, a handful of farmers will be no match for the terrifying creatures.

Young Khayrat studies to be a lumin, speaking to the listening world to bring light to civilization. When her father is assassinated, she volunteers to learn the dark art of the unraveller. Like any act of imploratory, her studies come with a price. With each unravelling, her mind fragments, her sanity fraying as she forgets the peaceful woman she once was.

Khayrat travels with a band of hardened killers, intent on assassinating the foreign royal family. Driven by her need for vengeance, she swears to reduce her king’s enemies to dust.

In the 14 years since I first read any of Michael’s work, it becomes clear to me he’s honed his craft to a very high standard. What he presents in Dust of the Dead is a darkly gorgeous tale populated with believable characters, reluctant heroes, hapless followers, and manipulative tyrants. His world-building is astonishing in its originality, complexity and realization, and how he presents new concepts, flora, and fauna is done with skill and ease, so that there’s rarely a moment the reader is left behind in this fast-paced, gritty, relentless epic. Frankly, not since reading N.K. Jemisin’s work have I been this impressed with a writer’s imagination and craftsmanship. Michael Fletcher is, in my opinion, top of his game, and despite not having a banner of Prix Auroras, Sunbursts, Hugos, Nebulas, or any other genre literary award, he is right up there with all the other current greats.

What he presents in Dust of the Dead is a story of the cost of service to a belief, to a country, to a craft. He sets about demolishing ingrained prejudices by demonstrating the common ties of dedication to family, to friends, to a truth beyond rhetoric. Species who are apparently monstrous are, in fact, no different than any other being trying to survive, to make sense of a world and political situation in which they find themselves. And in defining this alien fantasy world, Fletcher peels back the layers of our own humanity and prejudices, and even our own monstrosities.

And you, dear reader, must realize I am a tough critic and editor. I do not offer praise lightly. Yet here was this critical reader weeping at the end of this dark tale, so moved was I. So, there, Michael R Fletcher. Well done!

And you, dear reader: if you’re of a mind to be darkly and helplessly captivated, I highly recommend you delve into Dust of the Dead.

[Kenny Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a chance to read an advance copy of this book, and I’m glad I did.

I’ve been familiar with Fletcher since his Black Stone Heart days (a series I really enjoyed), and I had high expectations coming into this one. It reminded me a bit of Christopher Buehlman’s The Daughters’ War. The characters were clever, the dialogue was sharp, and the world had a pervasive and unsettling grittiness. I couldn’t put it down.

Great independently published fantasy is a rare thing, and Fletcher raised the bar for the rest of us. I’m excited for the next one!

[Dimitrobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I, truly, have nothing to say other than "READ THIS BOOK WHEN IT COMES OUT PLEASE!".
Amazing, emotionally devastating, great action, great magic, great world that I really want to get more of and the characters were great.

[Mark Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Fletcher was a fine writer out of the gate, but with Dust of Death he’s hit a new level. It’s a wonderfully inventive tale with bags of imagination scattered in all directions, and exciting magic that manages to be both familiar and different at the same time. I expect excellent worldbuilding from this guy but what really elevated it was the quality of the character work, tying everything together emotionally for a story I could really invest in on all levels. This is a tale that just works. Read it!



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