Del Rey Books is proud to be publishing Thagoth. This powerful first novel from an exciting new writer was selected by online readers as the winner of the Del Rey Online Writing Workshop First Novel Contest in the fantasy category.

In the proud tradition of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser comes a new team of daring, quick-witted heroes in a swashbuckling sword and sorcery adventure. . . .

Amra is a thief with morals--she won't steal from anyone poorer than she is. Fortunately, anybody that poor generally doesn't have much worth stealing! Holgren is a mage with a distaste for magic and a soul bartered away to dark powers who will transport him to an eternity of torment on the instant of his death. Together they embark on a quest for the fabled city of Thagoth, where the secret of immortality is rumored to be hidden.

But Amra and Holgren aren't the only ones after the secret. Many others seek to utilize the hidden magic for their own twisted ends. And waiting in the ruined city with dark plans for the world are the twin gods Tha-Agoth and Athagos, a brother and sister whose illicit passion is as destructive and vengeful as they are.

Now, as potent sorceries clash in a violent struggle for dominion over all that lives, Amra and Holgren face a choice between the unthinkable and the unbearable--with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. . . .