Description:
Nathan's freshman year of college is plagued with waking nightmares, so he flees for the Appalachian Trail. But a scream for help rips his reality to pieces, awakening the monster within him and exposing him to enemies from the spirit realm.
Brief description: Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita. An author, editor, and publisher of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them this dark fantasy novel Trail of Shadows, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence The Black Fire Concerto and The Ghoulmaker's Aria, and his latest horror collection Slow Burn. Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable "The Button Bin" was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, The Spider Tapestries, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy. As editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology Clockwork Phoenix 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series, showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification, and for Mythic Delirium, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years. He's also a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor's Choice selection, and Hungry Constellations, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee. With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.
Review Quotes:
"Trail of Shadows is a panic-laced, spider-paced, fanged beast of a horror novel, a coming-of-age in a world of monsters. Realities bleed into each other like a Dali painting as familiar landscapes yawn open into the surreal. You don't need psychoactive substances to go tripping balls in Mike Allen's Appalachia. All you have to do is read this book." (C.S.E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Saint Death's Daughter)
"Mike Allen has long been a force in fantasy and horror. With Trail of Shadows, he's once again hit it out of the park. Beautiful prose and a haunting story combine to create a tale that will draw you in and refuse to let you go. Folk horror at its best." (Gwendolyn Kiste, four-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Haunting of Velkwood and Reluctant Immortals)
"Hallucinatory, charcoal-dark, populated with ghosts, demons, and spiders, Mike Allen's Trail of Shadows is a violent fantasy-horror that pulses with atmosphere and atavistic terror." (Matthew M. Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination and The Obsecration)
"Trail of Shadows is a fast-paced psychedelic journey through Appalachia that's also a tender coming of age story. Allen's hallucinatory prose sears, full of wonder and terror, and his grasp of folklore and history shines throughout this Southern Gothic-meets-Weird-fiction novel." (Craig Laurance Gidney, Lambda Award-nominated author of A Spectral Hue)
"Spry and sprawling by turns, Trail of Shadows overflows with potent action and hypnotic, horror-tinged imagery. When it comes to dream-quest acid trips, this one's a hero dose." (Rich Larson, Eugie Foster Memorial Award-winning author of Ymir and Changelog)
"Allen creates a vast, intricate, and darkly imaginative world that is a chilling joy to immerse yourself in." (A.T. Sayre, author of The Last Days of Good People)
"Trail of Shadows is a tense, tight, and constantly surprising novel. A hike down the Appalachian Trail into a realm of shadows and surreal horror. I can't recommend it enough. It will keep you up late, and it cements Mike Allen as a horror and suspense writer to keep your eye on." (R.S. Belcher, author of The Six-Gun Tarot and The Brotherhood of the Wheel)
"Mike Allen's Trail of Shadows, set in the communities that dot the Appalachian Trail, is interlaced with strands of folk horror, high fantasy, and the just plain weird, that coalesce into a singular and fascinating milieu. Reminiscent of Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John stories, this pivotal novel firmly establishes Allen's launching pad for future literary endeavors that readers of weird and speculative fiction are sure to devour." (Pete Rawlik, author of Reanimatrix)