The Saint of Bright Doors (Tor.com, July 11, 2023)

Vajra Chandrasekera is a Sri Lankan author who has published over 40 stories in many of the top genre markets, including Nightmare Magazine, Clarkesworld, Analog, PodCastle, Fireside Quarterly, and many others. His debut novel arrives in two weeks from Tor.com.

The Saint of Bright Doors is the tale of Fetter, raised as a child soldier by his mother in her war against his father. He learns to walk among devils and anti-gods, loses his shadow, and finally escapes to the big city, where divine destinies are a dime a dozen and the inhabitants are caught up by the mystical locked doorways that have appeared throughout the city. Max Gladstone calls it “A breathtaking achievement,” and Sam J. Miller says it “keeps on dropping bombs and surprises and brilliance and heartbreak to the very end.”

Here’s an excerpt from the feature review by Andrea Dyba at Library Journal.

After he is separated from his shadow at birth, Fetter is without foundation. He’s raised by a messianic figure in a cult where summoning devils and murder are part and parcel of his education. As an adult, he flees to Luriat, a city on the brink of cataclysmic change, where he discovers a new obsession with the Bright Doors. No one knows what is behind them — some believe there are whole worlds, and some believe there is nothing — and Fetter grapples with the unnerving caste system as he digs deeper into the doors’ purpose… This novel is driven by the worldbuilding, which is grandly elegant and immersive… Dreamlike and inventive, this unusual novel is a complicated read that ably pairs the mundane with the mystical.

The Saint of Bright Doors will be published by Tor.com on July 11, 2023. It is 368 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 in digital formats. Get all the details, and read a lengthy excerpt, at the publisher’s website.

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