Drekki Flynt and Cado Ezechiar aren’t the only heroes of the Mortal Realms earning some novel treatment this year. Prince Maesa, the lovelorn aelven hero of many Guy Haley short stories, arrives for his full-length debut this summer – and things are looking fairly bleak for our grief-stricken nomad.
Maesa’s been having a pretty rough time of it lately. Exiled from his nomad clan for the crime of loving a human woman, the prince has wandered alone for years and years – humans are pretty short-lived compared to aelves, after all.Age gaps are always tricky in romance, but Maesa’s far from ready to let his beloved Ellamar go. Instead, the aelven prince desperately crosses the realms in search of a way to revive his lost love. Now joined by Shattercap, a dubiously-helpful spite companion, Maesa hopes the end of his quest is in sight – but there’s a final obstacle awaiting this pointy-eared Orpheus. Nagash, God of Undeath, is an avaricious sort – those who steal souls from the Great Necromancer’s bony grasp earn his literally-undying enmity, and he’s not exactly shy about making his displeasure known.
“Prince Maesa is one of my favourite creations,” explains Guy. “He’s a heartbroken aelf, wandering the Mortal Realms in search of a way to return his lost human love to life. He first appeared in 2018’s The Autumn Prince, an audio drama created to coincide with the launch of Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire.“I often set up my characters for future appearances. It’s only natural, for writer and reader both, to want to know what happens next, and something about Maesa’s tragic history – and his sidekick spite, Shattercap – really caught my imagination. I returned to him several times, with the short story The Sands of Grief, another audiobook titled Hungerfiend, and finally in the multipart Inferno! tale At the Sign of the Brazen Claw.”
“Though I intended to finish his story one day, time marched on, and my days were increasingly occupied with other projects. But still I wanted to know if Maesa succeeded in his quest or not, and eventually, an opportunity presented itself…
“And so we have the novel, Prince Maesa. It’s far more than a simple collection – all the existing stories have been extensively rewritten to weave them into a single narrative, and the audio dramas have been expanded and turned into prose.
“On top of that, there’re plenty of new episodes in Maesa’s quest. You’ll discover what happened to Maesa after he left the Inn of the Brazen Claw, and why his stories don’t always seem to add up… I shall draw a veil over whether or not he succeeds, but I warn you – it’s a tear-jerker.”
Prince Maesa will be released this summer, in hardback, ebook, and MP3 audio formats. We’ll have more news closer to release, so sign up the Black Library newsletter for more info delivered as we get it.