Here at SFFWorld we are pleased to show you an exclusive extract of Christopher Buehlman’s book, Between Two Fires, which is due for its first UK publication next month.
The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village.
An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm-that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfil her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.
As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.
Christopher Buehlman is a native Floridian and author of the literary horror novels ‘Those Across the River’ and ‘Between Two Fires.’ He is the winner of the 2007 Bridport Prize in poetry, and the author of several provocative plays, including Hot Nights for the War Wives of Ithaka. Many know him as comedian Christophe the Insultor, something of a cult figure on the renaissance festival circuit. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. His first novel, ‘Those Across the River,’ was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best novel in 2012.
The SFFWorld review will appear on Saturday the 28th February; but we thought you might like an early peek at the first chapter! The exclusive SFFWorld extract is HERE: Between Two Fires – Chapter 1
The book itself is released on the 5th March 2026.
Thanks to Kate at @OrionBooks (Gollancz) for helping sort this one out.
