The Wings of Ashtaroth

On this page, you can read a summary of the The Wings of Ashtaroth (like the back cover of a book), access the FAQ, read a short preview, or sign up for the newsletter.

You can access the expanded reader materials in the appendices, like the glossary, list of characters, and map.

If you’re enjoying this project, please consider buying Steve a coffee (Ko-Fi) or becoming a subscriber on Patreon.

Or if you’re ready, start with the first section on Wattpad or this website!

Summary

The great city of Qemassen is at a crossroads. A powerful empire from beyond the ocean threatens to reignite a centuries-old feud. A slave rebellion brews in the tangled labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city streets. And Crown Prince Ashtaroth, the city’s supposed saviour, is considered unfit to rule even by those closest to him.

When the high priest burns one of the royal children alive as a desperate offering to the city’s absentee gods, it destroys the fragile peace within Qemassen’s scheming first family. Seeking revenge for the death of her child, Ashtaroth’s mother calls on a powerful demon named Lilit.

But Lilit cannot be trusted. Her cruel machinations pit brother against sister and father against daughter, laying waste to Ashtaroth’s family. Then Lilit approaches Ashtaroth with a demonic pact of his own—one that could save his people and his home. But between war from without and a revolution erupting within, even a demon may not be enough to keep Qemassen standing.

Set in a secondary world based on the conflict between Ancient Carthage and Rome, The Wings of Ashtaroth is a sprawling, multi-POV epic fantasy, full of queerness, political intrigue, and demons. 

FAQ

Jump down to:

What do you mean by a “serialized novel”?

A serialized novel is a book that is released in parts, instead of all at once. In the case of TWoA, the chapters are pretty long, so the book is being released in smaller sections. Each section follows one member of the cast and should take somewhere between twenty minutes to an hour to read depending on your reading speed. Back to FAQ

Why did you release the book this way?

The Wings of Ashtaroth is long (over 300 000 words!). Most standard debuts today, even in epic fantasy, are only a third of the length. To properly do justice to the themes, characters, ideas, and locations in the setting, I needed the freedom to dig in and explore the story’s complex environment and relationships.

Additionally, there are a lot of elements that would make this book hard to query and sell to a traditional publisher, including darker themes, jumps through time, and a huge cast of characters, as well as a non-Western setting and strong queer representation. This book takes a some of my favorite elements from where fantasy was twenty years ago–an epic scope, sprawling political environment, multiple POVs, and a plot full of twists and turns–and updates it with a modern lens, especially with an eye toward modern representation. Back to FAQ

How often are new chapters released?

I publish one new section a week, usually every Friday at 5 EST. If you want to keep up to date, you can sign up for the substack newsletter or become a sponsor on patreon. Back to FAQ

How do I know you’ll finish it? I don’t want to get really invested in something and then it just disappears.

Good question! The truth is that the book itself is already done! Before each chapter is posted, I send it to a small team of editors to do final edits. Sections are scheduled pretty far in advance to minimize interruption (although patreon subscribers get them all early!). Back to FAQ

Okay, I’m interested. How can I read it?

Lots of ways! It’s best to start with the prologue, as a lot of important action that affects the rest of the book happens in it. You can read the first section either here on this site or on Wattpad. Back to FAQ

TWoA looks interesting, but I think I’d like some content warnings?

Sure thing! Individual chapters are tagged with specific warnings (just click on the link at the beginning of the chapter to view them), or you can visit content warnings for the entire tag cloud. Each tag shows how many instances of the warning occur and which chapters they’re connected to, so that you can easily make a list of what you’d like to avoid. Back to FAQ

Is there a glossary of terms?

Sure! Please click to visit the glossary. You can also view the character list. Back to FAQ

That cover looks really cool!

Thanks! The cover art and header art was done by AS Reid, who is also an amazing fantasy author in her own right under Ava Reid. Her debut, THE WOLF AND THE WOODSMAN, comes out summer 2021 from Harper Voyager. Back to FAQ

I like your website, too …

The web design was done by Maria Violante, who also writes SFF under her Korean family name, Maria Dong. Back to FAQ

Is there anything else I should know?

If you have further questions, please feel free to fill out the contact form.

Preview

In shape, the garden labyrinth was how Ashtaroth remembered it, but its familiarity only made it more sinister. It was as though something large and slithering writhed beneath the surface, stretching the skin of this place over itself in order to remain hidden. The trees were the same, yet strangers, and it dredged up memories of the streets he’d walked months earlier, the phantom city in which his own people had spoken a foreign tongue, and alien architecture had rent the skyline.

Someone giggled behind him. Ashtaroth swerved to look. What ghosts and monsters would Lilit send to torment him in this dark place?

“Lilit?”

That laugh again. It didn’t sound like the demon.

An unnatural light flickered further up the path, followed by the trill of a songbird. A few paces away from Ashtaroth, sheer, colourful scarves darted around one of the passages that lay ahead, as though someone had been standing there and he’d only just missed her. The same shrill laughter followed, dancing on a wind that had grown eerily calm.

If he entered here, there was no coming back. His home would be closed to him.

Ashtaroth’s home had been closed to him a long time.

He took the final step.

Cover

Cover Image for the Wings of Ashtaroth