by Emory Glass
Published 2024
The pact is bleeding.
What started as a bountiful covenant between a Republic and the goddess who sustains it now suffers a drought of faith. Should a famine of devotees follow, the Blood Mother will uproot the pact. Civilisation will collapse.
In the midst of these uncertain times, Corbha, a warrior-nun of steadfast faith, eagerly awaits her brother's birth. He will be the first child born at Madhcha Abbey in twenty-four years. If his delivery suggests divine favour, Corbha and her siblings are to punish a trio of disobedient senators. They have propagated the Republic's growing disregard for the Blood Mother and Her Eightfold Orchard. That cannot stand.
For Einaid, a doomsday cultist in hiding, the child's birth raises questions about the abbey and its inhabitants. The answers are scandalous enough to spark widespread dissent should they fall into the wrong hands—and nothing would please Einaid more than igniting the flame that makes Her Orchard burn.
Fall, Sacred Apple is a tragic dark fantasy drama washed in insidious and eldritch botanical horror.
Praise for Fall, Sacred Apple:
Fall, Sacred Apple is a brilliant tragedy which captures a moment of great cultural change—it simultaneously clings onto and rejects tradition. One of the most delightful aspects of Glass' work is how deeply it runs. This story exists in a much wider world than what we see here, and you can feel that in every page, from the political machinations to subtler hints toward a completely original calendar. You don't need to understand all of these little details to enjoy the story, but they help to make it feel like nothing else I've ever read.
Fall, Sacred Apple is a quick, unique read, that accomplishes a great deal in such a short novella.
— Adam Bassett, FanFiAddict
If you like vampires and nuns, intrigue and a bit of death, lots of screeching from the void, and lots of attention to minor details, this novel is for you.
— Jonathan Putnam, SFF Insiders
