Dreadful

A sharp-witted, high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, evil wizards and a garlic festival - all at once. Perfect for fans of T. Kingfisher, K. J. Parker and Travis Baldree.

It's bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard's workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something.

It's a lot worse when you realise that Dread Lord Whomever is...you.

Gav isn't really sure how he ended up with a castle full of goblins, or why he has a princess locked in a cell. All he can do is play along with his own evil plan in hopes of getting his memories back before he gets himself killed. But as he realizes that nothing - from the incredibly tasteless cloak adorned with flames to the aforementioned princess - is quite what it seems, Gav must face up to all the things the Dread Lord Gavrax has done. And he'll have to answer the hardest question of all - who does he want to be? A high fantasy farce featuring killer moat squid, toxic masculinity, an evil wizard convocation, and a garlic festival. All at once. Dread Lord Gavrax has had better weeks.

'It was very kind of Caitlin Rozakis to write this book for me. Sure, the rest of you should like it too, but it was clearly written for me, with all the elements I love: fun and humor, breaking fantasy tropes, interesting and complex questions about identity and redemption, and some delightful goblins!' Jim C. Hines, author of Goblin Quest

'A spellbinding (literally) massacre of all our favourite tropes, underscored with a pleasing dry wit.' Tom Holt

"An absolutely magnificent comedic fantasy with a hint of bite. This book was a witty, empathetic, and genuinely funny meditation on the nature of good and evil. It was easily one of the best books I've read this year."Olivia Atwater

Caitlin Rozakis's work has appeared in Cast of Wonders, Daily Science Fiction, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Weirdbook, Allegory, Liquid Imagination, Bards & Sages, Every Day Fiction, the anthologies Substitution Cipher, Clockwork Chaos, and Baker Street Irregulars II. She was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize and won the 2018 LUMINA Speculative Fiction Contest. She is based in New Jersey, USA and Dreadful is her first novel.

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