HE SAVED THE WORLD BUT DAMNED HIS FAMILY
When her mother is claimed by Death a second time, Kateryna is forced to abandon her afterlife and descend into Pandemonium—a shattered underworld shaped by pain, memory, and buried sin. To save her mother’s soul, she must join forces with her estranged father, whose devotion to a fallen goddess set this all in motion. Hunted by Morgana, the Goddess Corrupted and her chosen griffin-riders, Kateryna must journey through the shadows and confront the reality of her own dark past—because in Pandemonium, death is only the beginning.
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When her father's blind devotion to a fallen goddess kills her mother for the second time, Kateryna Cain abandons the stability of her tortured afterlife and descends into Pandemonium—a fractured, hellish underworld where the dead are not allowed to rest.
To reclaim her mother's soul, she must join forces with the last person she trusts: her estranged, fanatical father. Together they soar across turgid seas and haunted fields, driving deep into the heart of a city ruled by the Demon King—all while evading the ever-present gaze of Morgana, the Goddess Corrupted, who no longer cares for the balance of life and death.
But Pandemonium is not like the mortal world. It reflects the pain they carry and the sins they've buried—the consequences of every choice they made in life. As Kateryna's journey spirals deeper into shadow, she must confront not only the horrors of hell, but the truth of her own past.
For fans of Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen and N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Earth Trilogy.
In the tradition of Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost, ASHEN RIDER is a dark, mythical meditation on perseverance, fractured family, and the cost of redemption—in a world where death is only the beginning.
A literary fantasy with deep symbolic depths, dark as the abyss, and beautiful as Elysium. James Mills...crafts a mythic tale of fathers and daughters, heaven and hell, corruption and redemption with Ashen Rider...a fascinating reading experience, bold, wildly evocative, and at once empyrean and intensely human.
...Overall, I would recommend this one to anyone who is fascinated by the possibilities of literary fantasy—a small subgenre in itself—that doesn't forget what fantasy is really about: a fantastical narrative that encapsulates the deepest human truths in image and symbol. Very well done.
— Erik Goodwyn, author of King of the Forgotten Darkness.
"Ashen Rider is a wonderfully immersive ride into high fantasy with tight storytelling, epic sweep, and fantastic characters that will live on in your mind long after you've finished the book. Mills has created a dramatic and propulsive work, full of the kind of drama and suspense you can expect from the best of the genre. Adventurous without ever compromising its intelligence or its drive, Ashen Rider is a vivid and thrilling delight."
— Cameron MacKenzie, author of River Weather, and The Beginning Of His Excellent And Eventful Career.
Before I became a writer, my first creative love was guitar. I grew up listening to the greats of Classic Rock and Americana—and also some deep cuts from my own time. In my first draft of Ashen Rider, I had placed epigraphs with song lyrics. Since then, I’ve learned this is a big legal no-no. […]
Ashen Rider is my debut Epic Fantasy to be published by The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing on December 19th, 2025. As I was performing the final proofread, I couldn’t help but smile at all the tiny intricate references and easters eggs on nearly every page. Most of these only I will ever know, but I wanted […]
ISBN (Paperback): 979-8-9923135-8-1
ISBN (Hardcover): 979-8-9923135-9-8
Page count: 200
Size: 5.5" x 8.5"
Genre: Epic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy
BISAC Categories: FIC009070 FICTION/Fantasy/Dark Fantasy; FIC009020 FICTION/Fantasy/Epic; FIC009120 FICTION / Fantasy / Dragons & Mythical Creatures
Tropes: psychological, multiple POVs, family, redemption, wizards, mythological creatures, dragons, griffin, pegasus, angels, goddesses,