Official Author Site of Mark D. Reynolds
At the crossroad of dark, contemporary
fantasy and magical realism
The Sanity's Edge Saloon
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Book One of The Sea and the Wasteland
The Wasteland, a brutal and barren realm, an endless desert of dust and sand and the bones of all who came before … and failed.
Down on his luck, Jack accepts a job offer from a stranger in a coffee shop to become the caretaker of the Sanity’s Edge Saloon. A day later, he finds himself trapped in an abandoned way station in the middle of an endless wasteland perched upon the edge of dreams and nightmares, no idea how he got there or how to escape. Now Jack and others similarly lost must find their way out of the wasteland before a rogue sorcerer and his army of powerful cast outs overrun the way station, tearing apart reality and trapping them all at the edge of an empty world forever.
The starter book in the first duology of The Sea and the Wasteland follows Jack Lantirn’s search for answers as he races to free himself and the other lost travelers from the Sanity’s Edge Saloon and help them find their way home before their time in this world runs out.
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The Edge of Madness Café
Book Two of The Sea and the Wasteland
Trapped between realities with no memory of whole years of her life, Ellen Monroe believes she’s losing her mind, world reduced to its barest existence: a spartan apartment, a nothing clerical job, and twice weekly sessions with a psychiatrist because she’s delusional and paranoid and he’s the only one keeping her out of jail.
But every night, she finds herself haunted by dreams of a vast wasteland of white sand and a lonely way station inhabited by a writer who thought he could control reality—a writer she’d fallen in love with.
Suspecting her boss is in league with the local coffee shop owner to keep secrets from her, Ellen grows increasing paranoid, suspicious of her doctor and convinced homeless people are following her. And for some reason, the garbageman wants her dead.
Also, she’s fairly certain she can fly. But to be fair, she may be losing her mind.
The second installment of the first duology of The Sea and the Wasteland follows Ellen Monroe’s search for the truth behind Jack Lantirn and the imaginary world of the Sanity’s Edge Saloon, and whether she must abandon everything and everyone she’s ever known and dive deeper into madness for the answers she seeks.
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The Lost Door
Book Three of The Sea and the Wasteland
A handwritten note in a fortune cookie. The theft of books. An abandoned freighter found wrecked off the coast. A forgotten train station.
Eager to prove himself, aspiring reporter Wade Fisher follows a homeless girl, her skin tattooed with the pathways behind the universe. His pursuit of the story becomes a race into madness as the tattooed girl leads him to a crew of misfits, monsters and magicians led by a mercurial Captain in search of pilot who can open a way between the worlds in their long quest for vengeance.
Trapped in a dead-end job, Alan Gardner’s life is comfortably circling the drain when he unwittingly aids a self-proclaimed guide and guerrilla artist painting a mural in the main lobby of a multinational corporate headquarters, one she claims will open a doorway between worlds, sending him upon a journey with no idea what’s ahead and only the vaguest inklings of who or what is chasing him and the enigmatic guide cutting her way through the walls of reality.
The Lost Door is the first in the second duology of The Sea and the Wasteland and concludes with book four, The Edge of All Worlds.
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The Edge of All Worlds
Book Four of The Sea and the Wasteland
Alan Gardner’s life quickly unravels after his encounter with the self-proclaimed guide and guerrilla artist, Rain. Following clues left behind in a madman’s book, they set out across a series of strange and interconnected worlds in search of a sorcerer trapped somewhere at the edge of all realities. Unbeknownst to either of them, Wade Fisher and a collection of misfit monsters led by a mad, mercurial wizard are in pursuit of the pair through the magical doorways Rain is creating, determined to find the very same sorcerer imprisoned at the edge of all worlds, known to them only as the God Slayer, … and destroy him.
The Edge of All Worlds is the second part of the duology that begins with The Lost Door. In this, book four of The Sea and the Wasteland, Alan Gardner and Wade Fisher’s fates entwine as each confronts their darkest nightmares along the lost road to the edge of all worlds.
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What's GOING ON- February 2024
"The Hollows" inspired by The Edge of All Worlds
"The Hollows," a model inspired from Book 4 of The Sea and The Wasteland, The Edge of All Worlds. There's an excerpt below from the chapter "The Hollows," and additional images posted on the Art & Models page.
Drizzling rain greeted them at the lip of the gaping tunnel, spattering the surface of the bog with a white noise like water sizzling against hot iron. Rain pointed across the lake, finger hopscotching from one grassy lump to the next.
“There are peaks and short docks,” she explained. “If you know where to go, you can keep your feet dry. Or reasonably so. Follow me and don’t slip.” She paused, about to crawl down from the tunnel and onto one of the small islands of tired grass the color of dead autumn weeds. “Seriously, don’t slip. You don’t want to fall into this. Walk where I walk. Step where I step. And try and stay clear of the water, okay?”
The Hollows (click photo for additional images)