Return of Souls

Fans of military fantasy with horror elements will find a lot to like as Remic returns to the bloody battleground of WWI, which he first visited in A Song for No Man’s Land (2016). Pvt. Robert Jones of the 3rd Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers is still seeing the beings that he calls the walriders, terrible creatures with bodies that are “slick and black, thick twisted coils like oiled tree roots,” and with “long yellow fangs curling up from a disjointed jaw.” In the midst of an attack from one of these monstrosities, everything goes black and Robert finds himself in a different place, where a deserted castle offers refuge and a beautiful woman named Orana Katella begs for his help in saving her people from slaughter. Robert begins falling for Orana and developing hope for the future, but a walrider named Five Stripe is bent on hunting him. Intricate battle sequences are interspersed with Robert’s diary entries, offering insight into his past and the utter brutality of trench warfare. (June)