Five Lords of Dusk (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780645849516)

***Updated 2024: Cover re-design, character list, and revised prologue***

The hunt has begun. They will find him. And when they do, he will bring down the Empire from within.

The Empire would say the Blooded who ruled the land before them are dead and gone, but those onboard the Oathbreaker know it to be a lie; one look at the captain's ward will tell you that.

Shye is one of them. A Stormborn, Dusk Blooded, Strange . . . an enemy of the Empire, and he has just blown his crew's cover on imperial docks.

Shye wants to stop hiding, to learn the secrets of the Blooded, and discover what being a Stormborn truly means. The answers to the fading of the Blooded and all Shye's other questions must lay in Mistral, the capital of the Empire, and Shye knows that the bounty hunter dispatched to capture him can take him there.

Dorian just wants freedom. But such a goal is constantly threatened by the demands of their noble father, who wanted a perfect, controllable heir . . . he got Dorian instead. It is only their reputation that saves them from his reach.

The assignment to track down a rumoured Stormborn, a being of legend in tales told to guild children, could destroy that reputation forever if it turns out to be a lie. But, if the rumour is true, Dorian will be untouchable in the eyes of the crown and beyond their father's reach forever. There can be no better coronation gift for the crown prince than a Stormborn.

Five Lords of Dusk is the debut queer fantasy novel by indie author F. Malbeck. Featuring a genderqueer lead and a flintlock fantasy setting, this novel takes place in a world partly inspired by the author's home country of Australia, as well as the long legacy of epic fantasy literature that precedes it. Fans of Linsey Miller's Mask of Shadows duology and other queer fantasy novels may find a satisfying new adventure in Five Lords of Dusk and the Dusk Lords series.