Nothing is as it seems to be.
The ancient past is not dead. The hand of the Wizard Kings still reaches out to challenge the Androfrancine Order, to control the magick and technology that they sought to understand and claim for their own.
Nebios, the boy who watched the destruction of the city of Windwir, now runs the vast deserts of the world, far from his beloved Marsh Queen. He is being hunted by strange women warriors, while his dreams are invaded by warnings from his dead father.
Jin Li Tam, queen of the Ninefold Forest, guards her son as best she can against both murderous threats, and the usurper queen and her evangelists. They bring a message: Jakob is the child of promise of their Gospel, and the Crimson Empress is on her way.
And in hidden places, the remnants of the Androfrancine order formulate their response to the song pouring out of a silver crescent that was found in the wastes.

Return to Ken Scholes' Imagination Forest in this second collection of quirky, off-beat short stories. Diving Mimes, Weeping Czars and Other Unusual Suspects gathers seventeen tales spanning his first publishedstory in 2000 to his most recent in 2009including twostories set in the world of his Psalms of Isaak series. You'll encounter cynical Santas and explore the datingwoes of superheroes.You'll join God and Satan in the bar for a glass of merlot and watch the hyjinx unfold as Reverend Sparkle Jones leads his rag-tag gang of misfits across a post-apocalyptic America in search of the holy grail to stem the tide of an alien invasion.You'll meet the Lady of the Lake in the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and bump into Abe and his backup singers as they do their part to save the world. So settle in for the ride and keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times. Here in the Imagination Forest, you never know exactly who - or what - you'll come across.

Come back to the Named Lands in this compelling sequel to Ken Scholes amazing novel "Lamentation."
It is nine months after the end of the previous book. Many noble allies have come to the Ninefold Forest for a Feast in honor of General Rudolfo's first-born child. Jin Li Tam, his wife and mother of his heir, lies in childbed.
As the feast begins, the doors of the hall fly open and invisible assassins begin attacking. All of Rudolfo's noble guests are slain, including Hanric, the Marsh Queen's Shadow. And on the Keeper's Gate, which guards the Named Lands from the Churning Waste, a strange figure appears, with a message for Petronus, the Hidden Pope.
Thus begins the second movement of The Psalms of Isaak, "Canticle."

With these 17 tales, Ken Scholes invites you to his Imagination Forest. Youll find a toy bear of Little Brain tasked with a Very Long Walk and a mysterious metal man with the power to bring down a city and the heart to weep for it. Follow Meriwether Lewis west, seeking the source of a mysterious scrap of currency from the future. Laugh and cry as Andro Giantslayer recounts the highlights of his dungeon-crawling, dragon-slaying and diaper-changing career with Luendyl the Fierce and Fair. Learn exactly how Cain found himself a wife, see what superheroes get up to in their sunset years, and watch Hodgson and Houdini as they traverse the landscape of Hell in search of Michelangelos Crystalline Ear. And along the way, keep your eyes open. Youll meet alien babies, messianic Santas, typing chimps and maybe, if you look carefully, youll find some off-brand love and a little bit of hope in Drum Farrellys supply room. Buckle up. Hang on. A ride in the Imagination Forest is bound to be a strange journey . . .