Dawn Song

During the lead-up to the first Gulf War, back in an age when the Sexual Revolution was still a recent memory and AIDS was a death-sentence, a succubus wanders Boston seeking out the lost and lonely so that she can take their souls for the glory of her dread lord. Boston of 1990 is filled with solitary figures desperate for affection; some are pathetic, others monstrous, but all are easy prey for the darkly devout seductress. Lawrence, fleeing a shattered relationship in homophobic Providence for the comparative refuge Boston offers, crosses the form-shifting demon's path; is he fated to just another victim or in the solitary man has the succubus met her match? With a foreword by Dietmar Dath, an introduction by Elizabeth Hand and an afterword by the author himself, this new edition of the novel, first published in 1998, is slated to be the first in a trilogy; with sequels to this once unitary work to follow in 2015 and 2016. Dath writes that this novel "discourses theologically, perceives dreadfully, sings erotically and thinks politically." It was deemed worthy of both the International Horror Guild and the Bram Stoker awards. A short excerpt of the 2015 title A Choir of Exiles is also included. (Aug.)