Michael Cisco Boxed Set (Divinity Student, Golem, Tyrant, Traitor, Secret Hours)

Comprised of four novels and a collection of short fiction, this box set of Michael Cisco’s finest work contains the novels The Divinity Student, The Golem, The Tyrant, The Traitor, and the expanded fiction collection Secret Hours. The novels are published for the first time in individual hardcover editions.

The Divinity Student

Introduction by Ann VanderMeer
Each numbered copy is signed by Cisco, VanderMeer, and artist Harry O. Morris
This neo-gothic novel, illustrated by Harry O. Morris, uses the crisp immediacy of the present tense to lead the reader on a hallucinatory journey from humanity to inhuman transcendence. After a miraculous recovery from near death, a young man known only as the Divinity Student is beset by strange dreams whose lingering effects further alienate him from his fellows. Abruptly, he is sent away from the chill, damp confines of the seminary to work as a word-finder in the vibrant, chaotic desert city of San Veneficio, scanning old texts to record any unknown words he may find. There he is pulled into a covert plot to reconstruct the lost Catalog of Unknown Words, a tome of secret words, ghost-words and completely new, which could lead to an understanding of the synthesis of all natural forces. Cisco wields words in sweeping, sensual waves, skillfully evoking multiple layers of image and metaphor. The Divinity Student is a gem of literate dark fantasy, concisely illustrating the power, both light and dark, of words and meaning.

The Golem

Introduction by Paul Tremblay
Each numbered copy is signed by Cisco, Tremblay, and cover artist Harry O. Morris
San Veneficio, a place where illusion and reality, life and death, creation and decay all merge indistinguishably, provided the perfect backdrop for The Divinity Student. The surreal city is back in all its charnel splendor in this sequel. Exhumed by body snatchers in the opening chapters, the Divinity Student patches together a form from corpse parts to serve as a vessel for his still smoldering spirit. The episodic plot tracks this vibrantly rotten monster’s pursuit of Christine Dalman, a former fiance with an endless repertoire of magical subterfuges for eluding capture. The novel moves fluidly from one hallucinatory set piece to the next, borne along by his evocative prose and a tide of weird imagery that suits the morbid setting.

The Tyrant

Introduction by Rhys Hughes
Each numbered copy is signed by Cisco, Hughes, and cover artist Harry O. Morris
Fifteen-year-old Ella, crippled by polio, is already taken graduate courses in biology and exhibits a special facility with ectoplasm. She is employed as an assistant by Dr Belhoria, who has procured a unique epileptic specimen for the purposes of certain experimental forays into death.

The Traitor

Introduction by Jeffrey Ford
Each numbered copy is signed by Cisco, Ford, and cover artist Harry O. Morris
Cisco ups the ante for provocative dark fantasy by giving this coming-of-age tale a subtle metaphysical edge. While still a boy, sensitive Nophtha realizes that he’s uncommonly empathetic and able to see the world from the perspective of others. Tutored by his uncle, Nophtha apprentices as an itinerant spirit eater, or someone who absorbs lingering ghosts that congest the surrounding atmosphere and converts their essence into formidable healing powers. One day, Nophtha crosses paths with his alter ego, Wite, a soul burner who hopes to evolve to a higher level of being by gorging himself on the souls of the living.

Secret Hours

Introduction by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.
Each numbered copy is signed by Cisco, Pulver, and cover artist Harry O. Morris
This expanded collection of short fiction includes all the stories from the original paperback edition plus six extra stories. Stories include Ice Age of Dreams, The Death of Edgar Allan Poe, What He Chanced to Mould in Play, The City of God, The Cadaver Is You, Machines of Concrete, Light and Dark and many others.

Limited to 300 slipcased sets

• Each volume is signed by Michael Cisco and Harry O. Morris, with the individual books signed by the introducers.
• Full cloth bindings.
• Illustrated endpapers.
• Head and tail bands, ribbon markers, gorgeous dustjackets.
• Sold out at the publisher