The Black Mausoleum by Stephen Deas

The Black Mausoleum by Stephen Deas is available soon from Gollancz (£12.99).

“Two years have passed since the events of the Order of the Scales. Across the realms, dragons are still hatching…

Skorl is an Ember, a soldier trained from birth to fight dragons. He is a living weapon, one-shot only, saturated with enough dragon-poison to bring down a monster all on his own. Misanthrope, violent and a drunk, to fulfil his purpose and slay a dragon, means to be eaten. Now Skorl has a choice: he can hang for his crimes, or he can go with the last of the Adamantine Men, fighting against an enemy he was born to face.

Rat is an Outsider. He's on the run and he's stumbled onto something that's going to make him rich beyond all his dreams. It's just a shame that the end of the world has started without him.

Kataros is an alchemist, one of the order responsible for keeping the dragons in check. One of the order that has just failed, and disastrously so.

Two men, one woman. One chance to save the world from a storm of dragons…”

Stephen Deas: new three-book deal

John Jarrold has has announed a four-book World Rights deal with Simon Spanton of Gollancz, for fantasy novels by Stephen Deas, for a high five-figure figure. Deas’ debut novel, The Adamantine Palace, was published by Gollancz in March 2009; it was followed by King of the Crags this past April. The third volume in this series, Order of the Scales, will follow early in 2011.

The first book in this new deal is a one-off, The Black Mausoleum, related to his dragon fantasies, which will be followed by three further adult titles that entwine that series with Deas’ YA fantasies. The Black Mausoleum will be delivered in the summer of 2011, with the other books following at yearly intervals.

"Simon and I did our first three-book deal for Steve at the end of 2007," said John Jarrold. "With the immediate success of The Adamantine Palace in early 2009, we were able to follow that up with another three-book deal that May. And now Steve’s third multi-book deal in two-and-a-half years – which is remarkable testimony to his writing and story-telling, and to the fact that Simon and Gollancz know a good thing when they see one!"