Ignifer’s Rise – chapter 1

Mike GristBooks, Excerpt, Writing Leave a Comment

ARADABAR LOST Avia fled through the ash-smothered streets of Aradabar, and the Rot’s fiery black tongue swept close behind. Moths and Butterflies thudded to ground around her, bursting on cobbled stone, their broad wings seared away by the Rot’s ashen touch. Through breaks in the city’s skyline of library towers she glimpsed the column of flame rising from the horizon, like a brilliant orange flower painted on the sky. The mountain was erupting; one last defense against the Rot, and soon the great city of Aradabar would be gone. Screams rang out from behind her, but there was nothing she …

Mr. Ruins: Chapter 1

Mike GristBooks, Excerpt Leave a Comment

This is chapter 1, titled RITRY GOLIGH A, of my science-fiction thriller MR. RUINS, book 1 in the RUINS SONATA. Read more about it here. Her neurons are starting to burn. Her name is Mei-An, a sweet-looking meta-Asiat with black face-framing bangs to die for, and her brain is in my hands. She came in to my graysmithy building an hour ago asking for a language inject, for what purpose I have no idea. I didn’t question her. I’m a graysmith, a smith for the gray matter of the mind, and this is what I do: implanting memories, erasing them, …