Mask of the Sorcerer

&quote;If ever your heart has said, 'The great days are no more. The golden afternoon of golden tales has faded into night, and I came late, born out of time, to warm my hands at the embers that flicker and fade hour by hour' -- read this. . . Here are ghosts grim and gentle, red gold of Ophir, and fell weavings. Here is a tale to keep Scheherazade talking a hundred years.&quote; -- Gene Wolfe&quote;Darrell Schweitzer is a fine writer . . . Not only is he skilled in the exotic use of the best trappings of Fantasy, he employs a disquieting awareness of the dark nooks of the mind and soul. . . .Best of all, Schweitzer is a story-teller, by whose smoky fire one may sit spell-bound.&quote; -- Tanith Lee&quote;Superlative.&quote; --InterzoneDarrell Schweitzer has been three-times nominated for the World Fantasy Award, twice for Best Collection, and once for the novella &quote;To Become a Sorcerer,&quote; which forms the first four chapters of this book. He is also the author of &quote;The White Isle,&quote; &quote;The Shattered Goddess,&quote; and nearly 300 short stories, many of which are collected in such volumes as &quote;The Darrell Schweitzer Megapack.&quote; An expert on fantastic fiction, who has written books about Lord Dunsany and H.P. Lovecraft, he also co-edited the legendary &quote;Weird Tales&quote; magazine.