Heraclix and Pomp ― A Novel of the Fabricated and the Fey

Heraclix was dead and Pomp was immortal. That was before Heraclix’s reanimation (along with the sewn-together pieces and parts of many other dead people) and Pomp’s near murder at the hands of an evil necromancer. As they travel from Vienna to Prague to Istanbul and back again (with a side-trip to Hell), they struggle to understand who and what they are: Heraclix seeks to know the life he had before his death and rebirth, and Pomp wrestles with the language and meaning of mortality. As they journey across a land rife with revolution and unrest, they discover that the evil necromancer they thought dead might not be so dead after all. In fact, he might be making a pact to ensure his own immortality . . .

Forrest Aguirre's short fiction has appeared in more than 60 venues, including such wide-ranging magazines and anthologies as Asimov's, Gargoyle, Exquisite Corpse, 3rd Bed, American Letters and Commentary, Notre Dame Review, Polyphony, DIAGRAM, Clockwork Phoenix, and Paper Cities. His work has been honorably mentioned in various year's best anthologies, and one of his stories was a StorySouth Million Writer's Award notable. His short fiction has been collected in Fugue XXIX. His editorial work has been recognized with a World Fantasy Award. He has edited or coedited Leviathan 3, Leviathan 4, Nine Muses, and Text:UR The New Book of Masks. Aguirre lives in Madison, WI, with his wife and children.