In the long years after the world ends, elder empires struggle toward an uncertain rebirth under the shadow of the relentless demiurge Pantherion. A horse-headed man, a wizard always in need of a drink and a cast of other strange, unlikely souls struggle against the growing darkness, the machinations of a foe that can twist beasts into monsters in service of a scourge that could end all humanity. Join Burroughs Viklund, a morose man-monster who'd rather be tending his watermelons instead of saving the world, Shaw, a somewhat-shifty magus reluctantly willing to die (and die again) for his Art, and Viday, a truly deer friend, on their journey through the spindled Island of Caiphon in an adventure laden with action, wonder, pathos, talking dogs and surprisingly effective (though certainly off-label) uses of canned goods. Lose hope for the future of humanity, while having a blast doing it BURDENS is Peter Trinidad's first novel in the UGLINESS MEN series. He wishes for you to learn to suffer as he has. Remember, if you stare into the ugliness it becomes a part of you.