Blurbs

"The second you encounter the arboreal uplifted elephants who speak with the dead, you know you're reading a work of singular imaginative power.  It's a delight from beginning to end."

—Walter Jon Williams, Nebula Award-winning author of The Green Leopard Plague

“Lawrence M. Schoen's short works have already been nominated for the Hugo and the Nebula, and I expect this, his terrific first novel, to make a similar mark. Weird, wise, and worldly, Barsk: The Elephant's Graveyard is a triumph. Qapla'!”

—Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of Red Planet Blues

“Powerful. Grand in scope, yet deeply intimate. Schoen gives anthropomorphism some serious spirituality. It got inside my head in the way that only an exciting new idea can.”

—Howard Tayler, Hugo Award-winning creator of Schlock Mercenary

“Combines excellent characters and a fascinating world.  What really makes it work is how he deftly weaves together startling SFnal ideas with character-based intrigue.  You’ll really care for these characters, even as you find them believably alien.   I found it a compulsive page-turner and immensely enjoyable.”

—Karl Schroeder, author of Lockstep

“A heartfelt and wonderfully weird book: a space opera about kindness and memory. Read it. Meet these people. Listen to their dreams, and to their moons.”

—Max Gladstone, author of the Craft Sequence

“Imagine The Da Vinci Code. Now make it a space opera. Then transform the characters into animals recalling those from The Wind in the Willows. Fun, yes, but the playful vibe with which Lawrence Schoen begins Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard quickly veers toward the lurking dread of its subtitle. It is a masterful, onion-layered tale of pariahdom, treachery, and genocide that ultimately reveals the true deathlessness of hope and love. The read is unforgettable—even for non-elephants.”

—Charles E. Gannon, author of the Caine Riordan series

“Lawrence Schoen has written a captivating, heartwarming story in a unique and fantastic world… a novel as rich and mysterious as Dune.”

—James L. Cambias, author of A Darkling Sea

“Extraordinary character work grounds an ingenious, ambitious conceit. The world is delicately drawn, the ideas are timeless, and the flow of the prose is both gentle and incredibly provocative. Barsk will challenge every reader’s ideas of what should be possible in SF and leave them delighted to be proven wrong. Anthropomorphic elephants that can speak to the dead in space? Stop shaking your head and start reading. This book is an astonishing achievement.”

—Kirsten Beyer, author of Children of the Storm