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Synopsis
What happens when inspiration stops feeling entirely human? Paintings that command armies. Songs that shatter crowds. Ancient poems that speak directly into an immortal ear. A revolver forged from the ruins of Earth, passed from hand to hand across generations, delivering justice with a chorus of the dead riding in its steel. The Muse Within Us is an anthology of dark fantasy, horror, military science fiction, and literary speculation. These eleven stories all ask one question: does inspiration come from within, or are we tuning into signals already moving through the world? Editor Wally Waltner has gathered writers from across the speculative spectrum. Within these pages: a sorcerer-seamstress transformed into a dragon by her masterpiece; a court prince whose animation magic revives a forgotten civilization; a musician haunted by crowd-controlling spirits called the whispers, carrying two hundred dead from one show; a Norse scholar who realizes he has been speaking ancient kennings directly into an immortal ear; and a war painter ordered by a god of war to paint ever bigger victories until he refuses and pays the price.Also here: a baker empowered by a minor demon of boiling oil trapped in petrified wood; a mason's boy whose hands transform into the arches of a destined cathedral; a blues musician whose song outlives him through new vessels; a gunsmith on a dead Earth forging a revolver that carries a chorus of voices across centuries; and a young woman who discovers that flowers blooming where bodies fell grant strange artistic power at a terrible cost. Some of these muses are generous. Several are predatory. All of them change the people they pass through. The Muse Within Us because what moves through you may have its own agenda.
The Muse Within Us: An Anthology of Dark Fantasy and Horror: content & age rating
Intended for adult readers (18+).
This anthology contains graphic violence, body horror, death, and dark supernatural themes involving possessed or cursed artists. Several stories feature transformation, mind control, crowd deaths, war violence, and predatory supernatural entities.
What to know going in
This book has strong violence, no sexual content, and moderate language. Content notes include gore, murder, death, and mass death (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Adult readers who enjoy dark fantasy and horror will appreciate these chilling stories about artists whose creative inspiration may be supernatural—and dangerous.