Galveston

Sean Stewart's previous novel Mockingbird was named a Notable Book by the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, and chosen as one of Locus magazine's Best Fantasy Books of the Year. Now he presents Galveston, a beautifully written tale set on an island uprooted, and uplifted, by magic. . .

Galveston had been baptized twice. Once by water in the fall of 1900. Again by magic during Mardi Gras, 2004. Creatures were born of survivors' joy and sufferers' pain: scorpions the size of dogs, the Crying Clown, the Widow who ate her victims. And the island of Galveston would forever be divided—between the real city and a Galveston locked in a constant Carnival, an endless Mardi Gras.

Now it is twenty years later. The Mardi Gras continues. The revellers dance on, the singing never stops, and of the thousands who wander in, only a handful ever return to the real world. . .

On this particular night, Sloane Gardner wanders in. In part, to see her stepfather, Momus, the leader of the carnival city. In part, to save her mother. "I just can't stand to see her die," she says. But her choice of words is unfortunate. Momus, with his twisted sense of humor, makes sure she misses everything. For four days Sloane is swallowed in dance, in song—blinded by Mardi Gras. And what happens to the people on the other side while she is gone can never be changed. . .