The Etched City by K.J. Bishop

The Etched City

A Novel

K.J. Bishop

Random House Worlds · Print & ebook · November 23, 2004

“Combine equal parts of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and Chine Miéville’s Perdido Street Station, throw in a dash of Aubrey BeardsleyandJ.K. Huysmans, and you’ll get some idea of this disturbing, decadent first novel.”—Publishers Weekly Gwynn and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the losing side of a hard-fought war.

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Who it’s for
For when you want fantasy that feels sharp, strange, and a little radioactive.
Genres
Dark Fantasy, Gaslamp Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Published
Random House Worlds, November 23, 2004

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About this book

“Combine equal parts of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and Chine Miéville’s Perdido Street Station, throw in a dash of Aubrey BeardsleyandJ.K. Huysmans, and you’ll get some idea of this disturbing, decadent first novel.”—Publishers Weekly Gwynn and Raule are rebels on the run, with little in common except being on the losing side of a hard-fought war. Gwynn is a gunslinger from the north, a loner, a survivor . . . a killer.

Continue reading

Raule is a wandering surgeon, a healer who still believes in just—and lost—causes. Bound by a desire to escape the ghosts of the past, together they flee to the teeming city of Ashamoil, where Raule plies her trade among the desperate and destitute, and Gwynn becomes bodyguard and assassin for the household of a corrupt magnate. There, in the saving and taking of lives, they find themselves immersed in a world where art infects life, dream and waking fuse, and splendid and frightening miracles begin to bloom . . . “The plot, with its stories-within-stories and its offhand descriptions of wonders and prodigies, brings to mind the works of Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges.”—Locus

Sharp Strange Fantasy

For when you want fantasy that feels sharp, strange, and a little radioactive.

Come here for

  • dark-fantasy atmosphere, with a literary edge
  • layered worldbuilding that leans eerie

Expect

  • serious tone
  • immersive, conversation-starting read

Where it sits

Dark Fantasy80%
Urban Fantasy48%
Gaslamp Fantasy38%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Urban Fantasy
  • Dark Fantasy
  • Sci-Fi Adventure
Authors
K.J. Bishop
Publisher
Random House Worlds
Published
November 23, 2004
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Urban Fantasy