The Demon and The Daring

Even small fannish conventions can lead to some interesting finds. We visited AnaCon, an annual one-day event sponsored by the Anaheim Central Library in Southern California — and there we came across Dark and Zarus, a new fantasy novel by Lauren Cipollo and Matt Conant. “Dark, a feline wanderer haunted by the fall of her clan, has lost everything: her home, her people, and her place among humankind. Zarus, an exiled demon burdened with forbidden powers, carries the final message of a mysterious order. Each is hunted by the same enemy: The Frayed, an army of psychic undead that has spread across the kingdom like a plague… and drawn to Grasmere, the last stronghold of humanity, where the long-lost phoenix god Reku slumbers. To have any hope against the storm, Dark and Zarus must work together to unlock the ancient mysteries of the phoenix and root out the mysterious force behind the Frayed. But trust is hard to come by, and in a world unraveling under the shadow of the Frayed, a single doubt could doom them all.” Check it out in paperback at Barnes & Noble.

image c. 2026 Staten House