Dark Delicacies®

Henghis Hapthorn is the foremost penetrator of mysteries and uncoverer of secrets in a decadent, far-future Old Earth, one age before Jack Vance's Dying Earth.  A superb rationalist, he has long disdained the notion that the universe has an alternative organizing principle: magic.  But now a new age is dawning, overturning the very foundations of Hapthorn's existence, and he must struggle to survive in a world where all the rules are changing.

Hapthorn decides to leave Old Earth, seeking to solve the mystery of Hespira, an ungainly off-world woman who has lost her memory.  The investigation takes him down The Spray to the rank-obsessed world of Ikkibal and the rustic Shannery, where he unravels Hespira's role in a deadly feud between aristocrats.  But behind the scenes an unseen antagonist is plotting the discriminator's destruction.

Cover Art: John Fisk

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Carroll & Graf edition: 2005
Ace mass-market edition: September 2007
JABberwocky eBook edition: October 2017

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eISBN: 978-1-625672-90-2

“Foreword, Backward, Upside Downward” copyright © 2005 by Richard Matheson.
“Introduction” copyright © 2005 by Jeff Gelb.
“The Reincarnate” copyright © 2005 by Ray Bradbury.
“Black Mill Cove” copyright © 2005 by Lisa Morton.
“Kaddish” copyright © 2005 by Whitley Strieber.
“The Seer” copyright © 2005 by Robert Steven Rhine.
“The Fall” copyright © 2005 by D. Lynn Smith.
“Part of the Game” copyright © 2005 by F. Paul Wilson.
“The Bandit of Sanity” copyright © 2005 by Roberta Lannes.
“My Thing Friday” copyright © 2005 by Brian Lumley.
“Out Twelve-Steppin’, Summer of AA” copyright © 2005 by Nancy Holder.
“Bloody Mary Morning” copyright © 2005 by John Farris.
“A Gentleman of the Old School” copyright © 2005 by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.
“The Announcement” copyright © 2005 by Ramsey Campbell.
“The Outermost Borough” copyright © 2005 by Gahan Wilson.
“Dark Delicacies of the Dead” copyright © 2005 by Rick Pickman.
“DePompa” copyright © 2005 by William F. Nolan.
“The Pyre and Others” copyright © 2005 by David J. Schow.
“All My Bloody Things” copyright © 2005 by Steve Niles.
“The Diving Girl” copyright © 2005 by Richard Laymon.
“Haeckel’s Tale” copyright © 2005 by Clive Barker.
“Before You Leave” copyright © 2005 by Del Howison.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

Electronic version by Baen Books