The Fateful Five, Book One
A Worse Thing to Carry
by Chris Kwasny · Barking Goat Press
Captured at his own table, written with his AI fantasy studio, and told as a story for your enjoyment. How this book was made →
Finished 1 October 2026. Not out yet.
What it is about
Haldyr Rovan reached Ashlem with his father's axe, and a fortnight too late. The timber cut had closed when their Baron went missing and the forest started killing men.
So he took the next job: silver from a desperate husband to go after a woman who went in gathering two days ago and did not come out. Four strangers signed up with him.
They brought her out alive. They also found the Baron of Ashlem, dead at the back of the cave, wrapped in silk, with three wounds under his ribs that no spider made.
Now the town is frightened and the workers are desperate. And both want somebody to carry the blame.
He went back for every arrow, until the first he left behind, in a man on an unfamiliar road.
For readers who like their fantasy balanced between grit and wildness, like a tabletop adventure.
How it begins
“He made this shot a hundred times.”
Where it stands
- Drafted
- Copyedited
- Cover
- Finished
- Proofs
- Out
Finished 1 October 2026. Proofs next.
It will be online for anyone to read. Paperback and ebook to follow, with an audiobook planned.
Chris Kwasny ran the table this story was played at, for five years. About the author →
Pass it on
“This story is about leaving for a reason and what you have to carry: first your home, then the threats of a town, and last a party that was headed into darkness.”
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Read the first chapters of A Worse Thing to Carry.
Join the list, register your email, and the first chapters arrive. After that, a letter when there is news, and now and then a place from the road that did not fit in the book.