The Night Guard walk the streets of the old kingdom of Bialta seeking out threats that are beyond the abilities of the common soldier. Nial is one such threat—a girl changed into something “other” and on the hunt for human souls. Salt, a sailor recently rescued by the Night Guard, has been inducted into their ranks. He’s a quick study, but as new threats multiply all around them, will he have what it takes to survive?

Bialta is not alone in its woes. Sacral, a city that vanished in the distant past, has reappeared where it once stood at the heart of the Wastes. Like many of Sacral’s people, Maura is content living a quiet life, ignoring the outside world. But she finds herself desperately fighting to save her home as war comes to the city returned.

Meanwhile, across the Great Desert, creatures are stirring. Carver, the last living master of the magic known as fleshcarving, has won the support of the tyrant of Tolrahk Esal. Together they will unleash his twisted creations to sweep across the land and forever disrupt the balance of power.

In this epic tale, there is no good and evil. Armies march, demons feed, and deities unleash their powers on a world that will never be the same.

Craig A. Munro has worked in a variety of fields, including government, language instruction, tech blogging, and construction—all while completing a couple of years of med school at the University of Nice and eventually earning a BSc from the University of Ottawa (yes, in that order). He has lived in countries across Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East and has recently returned to Ottawa, Canada, where he pushes paper for the federal government. The Bones of the Past is his first novel.

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"Richly imagined, written with great pace and fluency, and bursting with ideas. Craig Munro is a gifted storyteller." —Alan Campbell, bestselling author of the Deepgate codex series

"Many fantasy tropes were slain and harmed in the making of this book. Munro dismembers the Hero's Journey and reanimates it in the true fashion of a mad wizard." —Rick Heinz, author of The Seventh Age

"This book will kick blood-spattered sand in your eyes, slip its serrated blade around your back, and ravage all your usual expectations of the dark fantasy genre." —Joseph Asphahani, author of The Animal in Man