The City of Astreiant is full of fair goers for the annual fair and the Dog Moon dog races are one of the main attractions. So a young noble going spectacularly bankrupt in a way that results in rules changes and widespread anger, a couple of suspicious deaths and former soldier Philip Eslingen suddenly finding himself the owner of an unproven racing dog couldn’t be happening in a worse conjunction for Adjunct Point Nicolas Rathe. Once again, lovers and partners Nico and Philip must navigate magic, murder, love and politics to save their beloved city from itself. Throw in new pet ownership and a job offer for Philip from Prince Coindarel in his new city guard and what more can their stars hold for them
Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Star Wars Rebels. She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death By Silver, with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs’ Point, Death By Silver, and for the short story “The Rocky Side of the Sky” (Periphery, Lethe Press) as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She was also shortlisted for the Otherwise (Tiptree) Award. Her latest short story, “Sirens,” appeared in the collection Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player’s Heart, came out in 2020. Her most recent solo novels, The Master of Samar and Fallen, were published in 2023.