COVER REVEAL: Sin and Sorrow (City of Sacrifice #3) by Michael R. Fletcher

Note from Michael:

This has been an absolutely mental year. For a variety of reasons—the big one being my inability to plan or schedule anything beyond lunch—I have ended up with four written novels all lined up for release.

A War to End All is already available for pre-order and will be released in ebook/KU/paperback on September 18^th, 2023.

Sin and Sorrow (for which this is the cover reveal) is available for pre-order and will be released December 4^th, 2023.

The Storm Beneath the World is currently waiting on cover arts and a final edit and will be released April, 2024.

Descent to Azakmar (middle-grade fantasy) is currently out with my test-readers.

How did this silliness happen? Honestly, I’m not sure. But I am ecstatic that by the end of the year, all three of my current trilogies (Obsidian Path, Manifest Delusions, City of Sacrifice) will be complete. I cannot wait to get to work on new stuff! In fact, I’ve already started two new projects!

And I’m babbling.

Way back—many thousands of years before the dawn of time—in the predawn of 2019, I stumbled across an up-and-coming artist by the name of Felix Ortiz. He’d done a handful of other covers already and had a style I immediately fell in love with. The first cover he did for me was Smoke and Stone, the first book in this series.

After a cataclysmic war of the gods, the last of humanity huddles in Bastion, a colossal ringed city. Beyond the outermost wall lies endless desert haunted by the souls of all the world’s dead.

Trapped in a rigid caste system, Nuru, a young street sorcerer, lives in the outer ring. She dreams of escape and freedom. When something contacts her from beyond the wall, she risks everything and leaps at the opportunity. Mother Death, a banished god seeking to reclaim her place in Bastion’s patchwork pantheon, has found her way back into the city.

Akachi, born to the wealth and splendour of Bastion’s inner rings, is a priest of Cloud Serpent, Lord of the Hunt. A temple-trained sorcerer, he is tasked with bringing peace to the troublesome outer ring. Drawn into a dark and violent world of assassins, gangs, and street sorcerers, he battles the spreading influence of Mother Death in a desperate attempt to save Bastion.

The gods are once again at war.

A few centuries later, in 2020, he did the cover for Ash and Bones, the sequel to Smoke and Stone.

Smoking Mirror spoke in smoke and stone.

Having returned Mother Death to Bastion, Nuru flees to the inner rings. The Loa heretics seek to turn her to their own ends and topple the nahual from power. As Bastion crumbles, Nuru contemplates the ultimate blasphemy: A world without gods.

Broken by his battle with Mother Death, Akachi awakens with renewed purpose. He must hunt the blasphemers who would destroy his beloved city. Armed with the Staff of the Fifth Sun he stalks Nuru through Bastion’s rings. The survival of all humanity rests on his shoulders.

Nothing is as it seems. Smoking Mirror, god of discord and strife, plots behind the scenes. He manipulates gods and men alike in a game as old as time.

From the lowest Grower to the gods at her heart, Bastion is once again at war.

Felix has now done a total of seven covers for me. He is not only a fantastic artist, but also an absolute pleasure to work with. I send him mad ramblings and he turns them into art!

And so now, it is my pleasure to share the cover art for Sin and Sorrow, the final novel in the City of Sacrifice trilogy!

Sin and Sorrow (City of Sacrifice #3) by Michael R. Fletcher
Release Date: December 4th, 2023
Artist: Felix Ortiz (of course) – Artstation | Twitter

Blurb

Cloud Serpent spoke in death and venom.

Half Bastion’s pantheon are dead, and more gods fall with every passing day. The underworld is ash, seared clean of souls by the Staff of the Fifth Sun. The nahual war among themselves, each sect battling to bring their deity to dominance. The veil is torn, the ghosts of dead gods, demons, and banished sorcerers clawing their way back into the city. Eternal Bastion is divided, her ancient stone crumbling.

Left brittle and cracked by the death of her friends, Nuru swears to rid Bastion of parasitic gods. Wielding the Staff of the Fifth Sun, the deranged Mother Death riding her soul, she stalks the pantheon one by one.

Fleeing his failures, riding the ragged edge of brain-burn, Akachi pursues his prey into the inner rings. If he doesn’t catch them before they murder the last god, all Bastion is doomed. For religion does not play a part in a civilization, it defines it.