Welcome

Hello, and thanks for checking out my work. My name is Chris Willrich (it rhymes with “stitch,” but don’t worry if you forget) and I write fantasy and science fiction. (More below the jump.)

I’ve had a number of published short stories, many of them in a fantasy setting centered on a country called the Eldshore. Prominent characters in the series are the poet Persimmon Gaunt, the thief Imago Bone, and the black cat Shadowdrop. Gaunt and Bone have appeared in short stories in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed, Tales from the Magician’s Skull, and the sadly defunct Flashing Swords. Shadowdrop has appeared twice in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

I have a non-Eldshore fantasy story, “Runefall,” upcoming in the anthology Tales From Stolki’s Hall, edited by Lou Anders, set in his world of Norrøngard, which he’s explored previously in his Thrones and Bones novels and roleplaying game books.

I also write science fiction (edging into science fantasy) that has appeared in such places as Asimov’s, F&SF, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. My story “The Odyssey Problem,” which appeared in the June 2022 Clarkesworld magazine, will be (to my shock and delight) reprinted in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023, edited by R.F. Kuang.

Three books in my Gaunt and Bone sword-and-sorcery series (part of the Eldshore series) are available from Pyr.

The Scroll of Years recounts a turning point in the lives of the poet Persimmon Gaunt and the thief Imago Bone, lovers and partners in crime in a fantastical world. Yearning to retire from adventuring, settle down, and start a family, Gaunt and Bone must instead flee magical assassins all the way to the farthest East of their continent, there to encounter a grand empire with dangers of its own.

The Silk Map finds Gaunt and Bone undertaking a quest on behalf of a crafty demigod. They are to find a source of the magical material ironsilk, while contending with dangerous competition and traveling the vast Braid of Spice, a trade route inspired by the real-world “Silk Road.”

The Chart of Tomorrows completes the circle for Gaunt and Bone as they return to the West of their continent — a particularly violent part of the West inspired by our Earth’s Scandinavian history and legends, a region on the brink of war.

I’m also the author of the Pathfinder Tales novel The Dagger of Trust, set in Golarion, the world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Dagger follows the adventures of one Gideon Gull, bard and spy-in-training, as he races to prevent a war between two countries he loves. It’s available from Paizo Publishing.

That amazing cover art for the Gaunt and Bone books is by Kerem Beyit.

The awesome cover art that adorns The Dagger of Trust is by Lucas Graciano.

Thanks to Matthew Kressel for the web design for this page, and thanks again to everyone who has visited. For now I’m still maintaining a separate blog at Goblins in the Library.

 

 

 

The Chart of Tomorrows

The Chart of Tomorrows by Chris WillrichThe Chart of Tomorrows

Gaunt and Bone find themselves at the heart of a vast struggle — and their own son is emerging from that conflict as a force of evil. To save him and everything they know, they turn to a dangerous magical book, The Chart of Tomorrows, that reveals pathways through time.

Learn more »

Purchase The Chart of Tomorrows from these online retailers:

Indie Bound | Books Inc. | Kepler’s BooksBarnes & Noble

The Dagger of Trust

Pathfinder Tales: The Dagger of Trust by Chris WillrichPathfinder Tales:
The Dagger of Trust

When a magical fog starts turning ordinary people into murderous mobs along the border, it’s up to Gideon Gull and a crew of daring performers to solve the mystery before both nations fall to madness and slaughter.

Learn more »

Purchase The Dagger of Trust from these online retailers:

Indie Bound | Books Inc. | Kepler’s BooksBarnes & Noble

The Silk Map

The Silk Map (Gaunt and Bone 2) by Chris Willrich

The Silk Map
A Gaunt and Bone Novel

Coming May 2014 from Pyr Books: At the end of The Scroll of Years, the poet Persimmon Gaunt and her husband, the thief Imago Bone, had saved their child from evil forces at the price of trapping him within a pocket dimension. Now they will attempt what seems impossible; they will seek a way to recover their son.

Learn more »

Purchase The Silk Map from these online retailers:

Books a Million | Indie Bound | Books Inc. | Kepler’s BooksBarnes & Noble

The Scroll of Years

The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich

The Scroll of Years
A Gaunt and Bone Novel

The first Gaunt and Bone novel from Pyr Books. Gaunt and Bone find themselves fleeing from assassins, all the way to the Far East of their continent.

Learn more »

Purchase The Scroll of Years from these online retailers:

Books a Million | Indie Bound | Books Inc. | Kepler’s BooksBarnes & Noble

 

Recent Blog Posts

  • Welcome
    05/31/2022 — Hello, and thanks for checking out my work. My name is Chris Willrich (it rhymes with “stitch,” but don’t worry if you forget) and I write fantasy and science fiction. (More below the jump.)…Read more »
  • Five Tales of Human-Machine Interaction
    02/26/2024 — Warning — spoilers for the following works! (Images used mainly taken from the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.) “Home Is the Hangman,” story by Roger Zelazny “Due Process,” story by D.C. Poyer 2001: A Space Odyssey, film by Stanley Kubrick, novel…Read more »
  • Many updates!
    05/16/2023 — I haven’t updated this site with news in too long, so here goes … I am thrilled to have had my story “The Odyssey Problem” from Clarkesworld June 2022 selected by editor R.F. Kuang for the anthology Best American Science…Read more »
  • Vote!
    11/03/2020 — …Read more »
  • Nice news about “Shadowdrop”
    01/04/2019 — I’m delighted to see my novella “Shadowdrop,” from Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue 261, is showing up on various end-of-year recommended reading lists, such as at Tangent Online, Featured Futures, and Quick Sip Reviews. It seems that fantasy and science fiction…Read more »

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