Book excerpt: Flames of the Sun is a dark/Gothic/steampunk fantasy set against a bleak, moldering landscape of brass and iron where the sun is a literally a gigantic furnace swinging around high above the world at the end of an enormous shaft that rises from deep within the planet's core. But the sun has gone dark. The sun's fire was extinguished a thousand years earlier, by creatures that both abhor and absorb light and other forms of radiant energy. They literally drank the sun into darkness. This clockwork world of iron and brass is running down as the planet creaks away into the silent darkness of starless space. Acid and ash rain from the sky, the ground rusts, society deteriorates and life decays. The endless night is ruled by creatures that have crept forth from the labyrinthine underground catacombs, creatures that feed on mutant humans who carry the sun spark within them. Now, a young girl named Embra escapes her underground prison and flees across the crumbling world, bent upon a holy quest to reignite the darkened sun, returning daylight to the world and regenerating life. Her quest will reveal the long-forgotten true nature of her world, and lead her and her species to a fateful encounter with the god of this dark universe. Flames of the Sun is dark fantasy for fans of Jay Lake and K.W. Jeter