Mark Everett Stone
Kalevi Hakala is tired. Weary down to the bone, his life an empty one since the death of his wife Jeanie and complicated by his son's growing emotional distance. He's at least somewhat content in his home in Silver Bay, Minnesota, but when a dead man tries to kill him for no reason he can fathom it sets him on a quest through the multiverse in an attempt to keep reality from being destroyed.
Foul-mouthed, slave, warrior, wizard and savior, Kalevi Hakala travels from this world to the next with only his wit, his dauntless Finnish drive to succeed (called sisu) and a lifetime's supply of hard-won experience aid him. He will find friends, new enemies and discover there is more to this life than merely soldiering on when things get tough.
Niendra Goisien is a special investigator for the Gyllethian Queen, Betelial Tim-Amre. As a Witch, she has magics that aid her in her endeavors, but the murder of the magnate Soro Divver draws her into a mystery that leads to her death. Five-hundred years later she returns as a revenant to find out not only who killed her, but the very reason the capital of Gylleth, Ramashur, reduced to an undead infested necropolis. Can she solve this mystery before she is killed again?
He has had many names, Frank Vickers, Fred Vaughn, Vince Fredricks, but this ancient immortal is better known as the monster who inspired Mary Shelly. Struggling to atone for past sins, he is forced by the Vatican to locate the infamous Book of Ur, an artifact so powerful it could usher in the Apocalypse.
With agents Carter and Branch at his side, he takes on the great evils of the world in the quest to find the book while ruminating on a past filled with strife and sorrow.
Can a man who considers himself a monster summon the wherewithal to work with those who despise him to find the book, or will he have to go through the body count of a long and bloody history?
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Starred Review: "This delightful Catholicism-infused quest fantasy stars a likable and original duo. Fr. Michael Engle, a pragmatic Catholic priest, and Jude, who has a considerably more uncertain relationship with God, are unlikely friends, but when a blood-covered Jude runs into Mike's church asking for help, Mike listens to him, believes him, and joins him on a quest to find the Holy Grail, which Jude hopes will help him destroy a legendary and dangerous family heirloom. Along the way they encounter Cain, the Norse gods (drinking and watching Bridge over the River Kwai), and a Valkyrie with the requisite 'chainmail-covered pillowy breasts.' When Mephistopheles shows up, Jude manages to label him an Arch-Fiend of Hell without irony and without irritating the reader. Stone's depiction of magic is realistic and intelligent and his treatment of Catholicism refreshingly informed and three-dimensional. Even the obligatory near-apocalyptic ending is coherent, surprising, and exciting."
--Publishers Weekly