Across the inef­fa­ble expanse of the Great Deep float bil­lions of shat­tered uni­vers­es: the Shards. Pop­u­lat­ed with venge­ful demons and tor­ment­ed humans, the Shards need Earth to sur­vive just as plants need water. Earth itself is kept alive by thir­ty-six right­eous peo­ple, thir­ty-six hid­den saints known as the Lamed Vav. Kill but a few of the Lamed Vav and the Earth will shat­ter, and all the Shards that rely upon it will die in a hor­ri­ble cataclysm.

When Daniel Fish­er is abduct­ed on his wed­ding day by the demon king, Ashmedai, he learns he is a Lamed Vav, one of the hid­den right­eous uphold­ing the world. The demon Mashit has usurped the throne of demonkind from Ashmedai and has been sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly mur­der­ing the Lamed Vav. On a desert-cov­ered Shard teem­ing with strange crea­tures, pur­sued by a fear­some demon army, Daniel and Ashmedai, saint and demon, must join forces to stop Mashit before she destroys all of exis­tence. Daniel’s sur­vival means he must ally with evil Ashmedai. Yet who but a saint — a Lamed Vav — can save the world?

Vis­it­ing Scribe: Matthew Kressel

Short­en­ing the Way

Sur­viv­ing Leonard Nimoy’s Super­hu­man Salute

Golem Sto­ries, from Mys­ti­cism to Fic­tion to the Realm of Plausibility