The Black Chalice

Calgary, AB, Canada: Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 2000. Fifth Printing . Hard Back. Fine/As New. 5 3/4" x 8 1/2. 495 Pages plus Epilogue, Author's Notes, and a Note on the Epigraph Sources. Dust jacket is protect by brodart cover. Endpaper maps. The year is 1134. In an isolated monastery, an aging monk begins the history of a war. It is in part his own story, he was there, thirty-one years before, as squire to the proud Crusader knight Karelian of Lys. A man who aboandoned his faith and betrayed his liege lord for the love of a pagan witch. But even as Paul begins his history, a strange encounter with the Otherworld enchants hsi quill. He can no longer write the cautionary Christian tale his superiors expect, he must write what he truly remembers. But what does he truly remember? All his life has re-arranged hsi memories to suit his faith. He has judged Jarelian, jusged the woman, judged the world. Now against his will, an entirely different story begins to emerge. It is a sotry of enchanted forests and an ancient pagan Grail, of a prince who believes he can build God's Kingdom here on earth, and a powerful sorceress who sets her hand against him. Most of all it is the story of Karelian, the warrior hero and disillusioned wanderer who finally returns to his own land, and there embarks on the most perilous journey of his life to find love, and a truth that he can live with. The BlackChalice is a powerful and sensual tapestry blending carefully researched facts with daring fantasy, making equal use of history and myth. It portrays the conquered pagan world as a wolrd that should lnever have been lost, and celebrates its brooding legends, its magic and its difiena sexual power.