The three main characters’ youthful ritual (never properly explained, never properly remembered) brought them close to it, and thus shaped the obsession and madness that defines the whole group thereafter. This word, Greek for something like ‘full perfection’, has various meanings: in Gnosticism, it represents the divine world, and in this book it is similarly used to describe a utopian realm. Reading that description, you might imagine something like The Secret History or Joyce Carol Oates’ Beasts, but The Course of the Heart is a quite different proposition which weaves together dark fantasy and stark realism.Ĭentral to the plot of The Course of the Heart is the idea of the Pleroma. The rite doesn’t go as planned, and the resulting fallout shapes the rest of their lives. They are joined/led by an eccentric self-styled magician, Yaxley. As students, three young people – a couple, Pam and Lucas, and their friend, the narrator – take part in some sort of magical rite. It’s not that the setup is especially original. Unfortunately, however, I must break this particular cliche out again for M. That includes saying I’ve ‘never read anything like this before’.
Every compliment or critique is inevitably a variation of something I’ve written in the past. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.I’ve written before about the difficulty of finding original things to say about books when you’ve written upwards of a thousand reviews. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more.
The seemingly least effected participant in the ritual (who is haunted by the smell of roses) attempts to help his friends escape the torment that has engulfed their lives.
Self-styled Sorcerer Yaxley becomes obsessed with a terrifyingly transcendent reality. Her husband Lucas believes that a dwarfish creature is stalking him. Pam Stuyvesant is an epileptic haunted by strange sensual visions. Years later, none of the participants can remember what exactly transpired but their clouded memories can't rid them of an overwhelming sense of dread.
It begins on a hot May night, when three Cambridge students carry out a ritualistic act that changes their lives. The author of Things That Never Happen (starred review, Publishers Weekly) and Light (Tiptree Award winner) delivers an extraordinary, genre-bending novel that weaves together mythology, sexuality, and the troubled past and present of Eastern Europe.
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