The past is never truly buried. Not even on another world.
The planet Thomàon was meant to be a paradise-a dazzling jewel of civilization among the stars. For centuries, its people have lived in decadence in the Silver City, where the elite gather to celebrate each Season in masked splendor. But beneath the city's glittering façade, secrets fester. The immortality-granting elixir that sustains the ruling class is running out. The powers behind the masks are faltering. And the ghosts of old Earth are beginning to stir.
When Warden Marks Lemure returns to the city carrying a final, desperate cargo, he unknowingly sets in motion a chain of betrayals that will unravel Thomàon's fragile peace. His daughter, Ammaline, a gifted singer invited to perform at the legendary Opéra du Mendicant, is thrust into a dangerous world of intrigue, where every mask hides an agenda, and every whispered promise conceals a knife. As revolution looms and the foundations of power begin to shake, old alliances will be tested, new enemies will rise, and the fate of an entire world may rest on those willing to unmask the truth-before it's too late.
For fans of gothic space opera, dystopian intrigue, and high-stakes court drama, House of Masks is a mesmerizing tale of power, deception, and the haunted legacy of a world on the brink.
Autorentext
Every summer as kids, we would host one group of cousins or another and jump off hay bales, create mazes by crawling the patterns through the tall grass, and steal green apples out of the garden. We also branded calves, killed chickens, and stole steak knives to threaten skunks with. But that's growing up on a farm for you.
Now I write fantasy, science fiction, and horror--and most of it comes from the worlds that I created as a farm kid, one way or another.
My first novel, Choose Your Doom: Zombie Apocalypse, was published by Doom Press in 2010 and can be purchased through Meta Geek.
"This is how I like my zombies: fast and funny. Choose this book, and you won't be choosing your doom. You'll be choosing hours of gooey, gory hilarity."
- Steve Hockensmith, New York Times best-selling author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
My short story, "The End of the World," about fairies on the Great Plains, received an honorable mention in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 3.
I also write murder-mystery party games for Freeform Games in the UK.
See my website and blog at deannaknippling.com.