Announcing: The Ghosts of Tieros Kol
It's a scifi novel!
Hey everyone!
Before I go into details about my next release, I just wanted to give an enormous, heartfelt Thank You to everyone—and I mean EVERYONE—if you’ve read anything I’ve written, or supported me by grabbing copies of my novels, or shared them with friends, left reviews, all that stuff. It means the world to me that you have given your time, and even a couple bucks, for my words, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I hope you’re all excited to read on!
THE GHOSTS OF TIEROS KOL
Science fiction in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance, and other sword-and-planet/planetary romance pulps. In many ways it’s a love letter to that pulpiness, with my own “flair”—and I say this because my regular critique partners say “it’s very you!” (an achievement I have worked hard for!)—with added subtle influences from books like All the Pretty Horses.
There’s mystery, there’s action, there’s romance (without it being a capital-R Romance), there’s s-e-x and cuss words—why else are you here?—and there’s a dash of fantasy.
There’s space ships! There’s swordfights! It’ll trigger your nicotine cravings! GET HYPE!
If you’ve read Pallas, you’ll notice the retro vibes. If you’ve read The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick, you’ll notice the character work. But it is a very different novel compared to both!
I was inspired by art quite a lot, especially the works of Frank Frazetta, Moebius, Jeff Jones, Paul Lehr, Roger Dean, and countless other fantasy and scifi artists (just wait ‘til you see the cover!) Old Hollywood was an influence in some parts, too.
I listened to UFO - Phenomenon so much while writing this novel, please just put on Crystal Light or Space Child while you read the blurb (or Doctor Doctor or Rock Bottom—Oh, just listen to the whole thing!) Their album Lights Out also got A TON of play—Love to Love, HELLO! that fucking OUTRO!
Other albums with very high play rates: Scorpions - Taken By Force (especially the song We’ll Burn the Sky), Fly to the Rainbow; Yes - Close to the Edge (especially And You And I); Strawbs - Hero and Heroine; and tons of Uriah Heep, Blue Öyster Cult, ELP, Deep Purple, Moody Blues (ESPECIALLY Nights in White Satin!) and so many others, but the list would be a mile long.
Anywho…
I’ll be tweaking this blurb until the day I hit publish LOL so feel free to leave critiques for it in the comments, if you have any. In fact, please do. (Blurbs really are the bane of my authorial existence.)
THE BLURB
An ancient landscape, dotted with standing stones that sing for those who listen, metallic shards on the wind that glitter while they cut, and under the surface threads a blue mineral, tierosite—radiant, strange, and haunting.
The king has gone mad, the palace is in turmoil, and Princess Brena hasn’t heard from her older sisters in ages. She suspects a man named Dene Eame is at the center of all her troubles—an antiquarian with a strange obsession with the standing stones—but she needs real proof of his involvement.
Nikolai Lev, thief-for-hire, had a simple job to do: fake some mining contracts, steal some data, wipe all traces . . . but when his client attempts to kill him after the job is done, it makes it harder to pay the bills. To top it all off, a princess finds Lev while he’s too injured to run? What luck—now he has to keep himself out of jail, too.
As Brena questions Lev while he recovers, she begins connecting the dots between Dene and the troubles at the palace—but why would he hire Lev, and what does he want with the royal family? As more mysteries are brought to light, Brena and Lev work together to find the answers—and what they find might risk the future, and the past, of Tieros Kol.
(Of the feedback I’ve gotten on the blurb I’m at 50/50 cut or keep that opening paragraph in italics, so what do you think?)
Cover reveal in the fall, release in 2025 (specific date TBD.)
If you’re interested in an ARC (Advance Reader Copy, a free copy in exchange for an honest review) I’ll have it ready in the fall too, but as always you can email me any time: lisakuznakbooks (at) proton (dot) me
If you're new to me as an author and haven’t yet read my back catalogue, there’s a bunch right here on Substack available for free to get a taste of my voice, or of course there’s my books:
The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick
Pull Me Under (a serial)
Thanks again!
Peace!
Sounds thrilling. I promise one sale.
I had an early literary love affair with Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I still have a crush on Dejah Thoris almost fifty years later. So, this sounds better than good.
This looks fun! I've been hoping some authors would return to old-school SFF.
Thanks for the music recs. :)
I like the italicized part of the blurb, but maybe that's just me?