Books by Hal Duncan

This novella-length collection of Erehwynan Idylls offers readers an indulgent and weird agglomeration of randy boys and revelations, as the embodiment of a small breeze--actually the gene-spliced child of the gods Zephyros and Ares--flirts and seduces fleshlings on a terraformed future Mars. Hal Duncan's acclaimed style is both alethic and erudite and offers a fresh telling of philosophical musings and classic Greek mythology for 21st century readers.

Meet the Scruffians, workhouse tykes and street arabs scrobbled by the Waiftaker General, dragged to the Institute and put to the Stamp that writes your very soul into your skin. Meet the waifs of Ripper Vicky's Empire, Fixed forever as they are, never ageing, never starving, ever bouncing back to exactly how they were Fixed... the perfect child labour. Now escaped from their chimney sweep and mill owner masters, hiding out in their rookery cribs, surviving as thieves and beggars... and fighting back. Meet Flashjack the hellion and Puckerscruff the urchin; Squirlet Nicely and Vermintrude Toerag; Yapper, the Scruffian who learned to speak Dog; Whelp, the dog Fixed as a Scruffian; and Rake Jake Scallion, not a Scruffian, but the finest friend any scruff ever had. Meet Gobfabbler, the fabbler of this here crib, with his fabbles of Christmas spirit, canine spifflication, and why, only the most important fabble of em all... the fabble of how the Scruffians took the Stamp! SPESHUL EDITION

Are you prepared to enter acclaimed author Hal Duncan's world of scruffians and scamps and sodomites? Beware, for it is filled with the gay pirate gods of Love and Death, immortal scoundrels, and young men who find themselves forced to become villains. But who amongst us does not adore a gamin antihero? These fantastical tales from the fringes of an imaginative realm of supernatural fairies and human fey will captivate the reader. Light a smoke, raise a cup of whiskey, and seek a careful spot to cruise the Scruffians!This deluxe edition of Scruffians! contains one never-before-published short story and over forty full-color photographs that compliment the fantastical and homoerotic elements of Duncan's imaginative tales.

Fixed imperishable by the Stamp, sold as slaves, escaped to run wild, fight dirty and plot revenge, Scruffians might look no more'n filthy guttersnipes, but it's a daft groanhuff who crosses em. From the Children's Crusades to the chimney sweeps of Ripper Vicky's London, from Jack Scallywag to the Beast of Buskerville, Scruffians have learnt the hard way to carry a shiv and mind yer mate's back. We'll learn you too, scamp, with these fabbles of Liberatings and Come-Uppances, carnival carnage and Christmas feasts. So cosy in and grab some grub. It's stew tonight, and if yer finds a finger... that's good luck! Praise for A Scruffian Survival Guide: "The post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal Duncan's A Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world - a feral dream. The language is mad genius." - Jeffrey Ford

Meet the Scruffians, workhouse tykes and street arabs scrobbled by the Waiftaker General, dragged to the Institute and put to the Stamp, Fixed ageless, imperishable... the perfect child labour. Meet the scruffs escaped to live free & fight back: Flashjack and Puckerscruff; Squirlet Nicely and Vermintrude Toerag; Yapper, the Scruffian what speaks Dog; Whelp, the dog Fixed as a scruff; and Rake Jake Scallion, not a scruff, but the finest friend a scruff ever had. Park yer arse, stray, and we'll learn yer the ABCs of being a scruff. We'll learn yer how us Scruffians STAMP. Praise for A Scruffian Survival Guide: "The post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal Duncan's A Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world - a feral dream. The language is mad genius." -- Jeffrey Ford "Hal Duncan's cheeky and charming Scruffian stories hide a steely shiv of inspection..." -- Neil Williamson

Urchins scrobbled down the centuries from yer poor and persecuted. Foundlings Fixed in imperishable waifhood by the Stamp & sold to rich groanhuffs as child labour. Hellions with spirits as resilient as their flesh, less like to cower from a kick than nick yer boot, hamstring yer and fuckin leg it. That's what it is to be a Scruffian, mate, and there ain't a rhyme sung or tale told in a Scruffian squat that ain't, at the end of the day, out to learn yer how to survive. So cosy in, scamps, quit yer fidgeting, and hark to the fabbler of this here crib... Aimed at readers old and new, as latest instalment or stand-alone introduction, A Scruffian Survival Guide collects five new works of dark queer fantasy in the "Scruffian" series. "The post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal Duncan's The Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world - a feral dream. The language is mad genius." -- Jeffrey Ford

Meet the Scruffians, workhouse tykes and street arabs scrobbled by the Waiftaker General, dragged to the Institute and put to the Stamp that writes your very soul into your skin. Meet the waifs of Ripper Vicky's Empire, Fixed forever as they are, never ageing, never starving, ever bouncing back to exactly how they were Fixed... the perfect child labour. Now escaped from their chimney sweep and mill owner masters, hiding out in their rookery cribs, surviving as thieves and beggars... and fighting back. Meet Flashjack the hellion and Puckerscruff the urchin; Squirlet Nicely and Vermintrude Toerag; Yapper, the Scruffian who learned to speak Dog; Whelp, the dog Fixed as a Scruffian; and Rake Jake Scallion, not a Scruffian, but the finest friend any scruff ever had. Meet Gobfabbler, the fabbler of this here crib, with his fabbles of Christmas spirit, canine spifflication, and why, only the most important fabble of em all... the fabble of how the Scruffians took the Stamp!

Fantastique Unfettered #4 Ralewing marks the one year anniversary of this new, genre-bending magazine, an issue filled to the brim with unique prose, poetry, and non-fiction. Herein, there are fears to face, and things unknown, things unthought. Herein, there is Death unmasked. We dare you to turn these pages and read... Featuring new fiction and poetry by Hal Duncan, Mike Allen, Jacqueline West, Alma Alexander and more. Table of contents: Fiction: Azif by Lynne Jamneck The Bachorum Principle by Brenda Stokes Barron The Butterfly Collection of Miss Letitia Willoughby Forbes by Alma Alexander Mr. White Umbrella by Georgina Bruce Sons of the Law by Hal Duncan Stolen Souls by Mike Allen (Reprint) Three Tales of the Devil's Wife by Carmen Lau Verite by D. Harlan Wilson Poetry: Mike Allen (special feature) Seed the Earth, Burn the Sky Binary Sisyphus Crawls Self-portrait by Shweta Narayan 'cubus by Dan Campbell At the Crossroads of the West by J. C. Runolfson Life Decisions by Kaolin Fire Black Sheep by Jacqueline West Clones evaporate faster by Kristine Ong Muslim Nonfiction: Alexa Chats with... Hal Duncan & Brent Weeks The Night Circus Reviewed by Alexandra Seidel Life is Suffering: The Writer's Point of View, Being a Discussion with Hal Duncan & Mike Allen, Conducted by Alexandra Seidel This Inscrutable Light: A Response to Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Editorial by Brandon H. Bell "The stories are fantastical in the best sense of the word: strange and marvelous, full of the inexplicable... This magazine is worth seeking out." --Terry Weyna, Fantasy Literature "By and large the sensibility is 'literary, ' and the quality is high (the two, of course, not always the same thing), virtually all the stories assembled here working, though to different degrees and in different ways.... That combination of quality and variety means that Fantastique Unfettered #1 offers something for many different tastes... " --Nader Elhefnawy, The Future Fire "There is a poignance in these poems: an ache and a loss, a love and a surrender, a luscious melange of sorrow and love." --Dan Campbell, Poetry Editor of Bull Spec (in his review of the poetry and interview)

It's 2017 and the End Days are coming, beings that were once human gathering to fight in one last great war for control of the Vellum - the vast realm of eternity on which our world is just a scratch. But to a draft-dodging Irish angel and a trailer-trash tomboy called Phreedom, it's about to become brutally clear that there's no great divine or diabolic plan at play here, just a vicious battle between the hawks of Heaven and Hell, with humanity stuck in the middle, and where the easy rhetoric of Good and Evil, Order versus Chaos just doesn't apply. Here there are no heroes, no darlings of destiny struggling to save the day, and there are no villains, no dark lords of evil out to destroy the world. Or at least if there are, it's not quite clear which is which. Here, the most ancient gods and the most modern humans are equally fate's fools, victims of their own hubris, struggling to save their own skins, their own souls, but sometimes . . . just sometimes . . . sacrificing everything in the name of humanity."e;Vellum is a mind-blowing read that's genuinely like nothing you've ever read before. . . The imaginary worlds that he dreams up are stunning. . . Vellum has expanded fantasy's limits like nothing published in years."e; SFX