Opus 4: An Okal Rel Legacy Anthology

“They had expected a Nersallian, but what marched out was something else entirely.” Illustration by Richard Bartrop.

Published by Absolute XPress, this anthology contains “Nestor’s Blood”, the second story featuring Nestor Tark, with cultural tugging from all sides and disturbing forces from the past that Nestor thought he had buried forever.

This is the fourth anthology of stories set in the Okal Rel Universe. It honors the theme of secrets rooted in the past that emerge to perturb people’s lives. Like other Okal Rel anthologies, the theme is drawn from one of the main saga novels; in this case Throne Price, in which Erien’s return to court upsets the balance of power between Ameron and Ev’rel. The choice of theme comes from co-editor Sheila Flesher who recognized the “skeleton-in-the-closet” issue as one that could be productive for short stories.