Arraborough Book Two, 'The Darkness', now available

Eddie Drueding's Arraborough series debuted in 2012 with The Unimaginable Road, featuring a "fully anthropomorphic world bereft of a human populace". With 2013 comes the release of The Darkness, again published by Melange Books, and available in PDF and HTML formats or print-on-demand via Lulu.

Proceeds from 2013 sales will be donated to a local animal charity, The Cat Rescue Network.

Book 1, The Unimaginable Road introduced a strange animal planet and the small group of friends who decided to build a safe haven from the deep-laid intrigues of their modern society.

The Darkness finds them facing their painful pasts and confronting their hostile environment. An expedition exploring the dark, mysterious network of caves finds evidence of horrors past, present, and future; and a seemingly random accident in a nearby city sends a tragic figure on a collision course with the peaceful denizens of Arraborough.

Read more: Fred Patten reviews The Darkness

In his review of The Darkness, Fur Affinity writing forum moderator Frank LeRenard, says Eddie Drueding's books “have something which is truly difficult to find in any creative medium, from music to art to literature, which is a near-perfect combo of imagination, childlike wonder, and maturity.”

In Arraborough, there are no heroes, and in the end, the Darkness will claim them all.

Book 2's cover art is by Tad Cooga. According to the artist, “anthropomorphic stories provide a unique outlook to fans of the fantasy genre, allowing for both writers and readers to experience a whole new realm of imagination through the eyes of creatures that, all things considered, perhaps aren't so different from us after all.”

Book 3, Moth and Rust, is also in development and is to sport a painted cover by American photorealist artist Howard David Johnson.