10 August SFF book releases that will end your summer reading on a high note

The Gossamer Mage by Julie E. Czerneda

Aurora Award-winning fantasy author Julie E. Czerneda is releasing a new epic fantasy novel this month, and it sounds as dark and magical as ever. The Gossamer Mage is set in a place called Tananen, where people worship a deity called the Deathless Goddess. And those who can understand and speak the language of the Deathless Goddess have received Her Gift — and all the powers and problems that accompany it.

And the mages who have Her Gift learn to wield the Deathless Goddess’ words as intentions. These intentions are spells that create plants and beasts, and if an intention goes awry, it can create creatures called gossamers, which are costly the mages. To be fair, though, using Her Gift always comes at a steep price. Successfully writing and creating intentions ages mages until they can’t carry on — but even then the Deathless Goddess collects her fee, often allowing the mages to die when they’re no longer of use to Her.

The Gossamer Mage sees the most talented mage of all time setting out to find the Deathless Goddess and put an end to Her. Unfortunately, he quickly realizes what an impossible undertaking this is — and how detrimental it could be for Tananen if he succeeds.

Readers can find out what choice the mage makes by picking up The Gossamer Mage after it releases on August 6. The story is a uniquely dark take on common fantasy tropes, and it’s sure to have readers flipping through its pages to get to the end.