New York Comic-Con 2018 Free Sampler Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James On sale February 5th, 2019 Blood Communion by Anne Rice The latest in the Vampire Chronicles Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett First in a new series from the author of City of Stairs Gates of Stone by Angus Macallan On sale February 15th, 2019 Hilo Book 1: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth by Judd Winick Book 5 on sale January 29th, 2019 The Last Voyage of Poe Blythe by Ally Condie On sale January 15th, 2019 The Women’s War by Jenna Glass On sale March 5th, 2019 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 BLACK LEOPARD, 12 13 RED WOLF 14 15 16 ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ 17 18 19 20 21 MARLON JAMES 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 RIVERHEAD BOOKS ■ NEW YORK ■ 2019 31 32 S33 N34 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd iv 9/7/18 10:46 PM 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd v 9/7/18 10:46 PM 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 RIVERHEAD BOOKS An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 12 375 Hudson Street 13 New York, New York 10014 14 15 Copyright © 2019 by Marlon James 16 Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized 17 edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, 18 or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. 19 Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data 20 [Insert CIP TK] 21 Printed in the United States of America 22 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 23 Book design by Gretchen Achilles 24 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, 25 companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33S 34N 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd vi 9/7/18 10:46 PM In the stunning first novel in Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child. Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: “He has a nose,” people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard. As Tracker follows the boy’s scent – from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers – he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying? Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that’s come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that’s also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorization and full of unforgettable char- acters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamen- tals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both. 01 T H O S E W H O A P P E A R 02 03 IN THIS ACCOUNT 04 ▼ ▼ ▼ 05 06 07 08 09 10 IN JUBA, KU, GANGATOM 11 12 KWASH DARA, son of Kwash Netu; King of the North Kingdom, a.k.a. the Spi- 13 der King 14 TRACKER, hunter known by no other name 15 HIS FATHER 16 HIS MOTHER 17 a great chief of the Ku BELOVED UNCLE, 18 name of a river tribe and territory KU, 19 a river tribe, territory and enemy of the Ku GANGATOM, 20 a river tribe and territory north of Ku LUALA LUALA, 21 ABOYAMI, a father 22 AYODELE, his son 23 WITCHMAN, necromancer of the Ku 24 ITAKI, a river witch 25 KAVA/ ASANI, boy of the Ku 26 LEOPARD, shape- shifting hunter known by a few other names 27 YUMBOES, bush fairies and guardians of children 28 THE FIRST SANGOMA, an antiwitch 29 THE MINGI, who are: 30 Giraffe Boy 31 Smoke Girl 32 The albino S33 N34 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd xii 9/7/18 10:46 PM 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd xiii 9/7/18 10:46 PM xiv T HOSE WHO APPEAR IN THIS ACCOUNT 01 Ball Boy 02 The joined twins 03 ASANBOSAM, monstrous eater of human flesh 04 The Gangatom chief 05 06 IN MALAKAL 07 08 THE AESI, chancellor of Kwash Dara; the Spider King’s other four limbs 09 BUNSHI/ POPELE, river jengu, mermaid, shape- shifter 10 SOGOLON, the Moon Witch 11 SADOGO, of the Ogos, tall, mighty men who are not giants 12 AMADU, a slaver 13 BIBI, his manservant 14 NSAKA NE VAMPI, a mercenary 15 NYKA, a mercenary 16 FUMELI, the Leopard’s bowman 17 BELEKUN THE BIG, a fat elder 18 ADAGAGI THE WISE, a wise elder 19 AMAKI THE SLIPPERY, an elder nobody knows 20 NOOYA, a woman possessed by the lightning bird 21 THE BULTUNGI, shape- shifting Hyena avengers 22 ZOGBANU, trolls originally from the Blood Swamp 23 VENIN, a girl raised to be food for the Zogbanu 24 CHIPFALAMBULA, a great fish 25 GHOMMIDS, sometimes- nice forest creatures 26 EWELE, a vicious ghommid 27 EGBERE, his cousin, vicious when hungry 28 ANJONU, spirit of the Darklands who reads hearts 29 THE MAD MONKEY, a deranged primate 30 31 32 33S 34N 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd xiv 9/7/18 10:46 PM TH OSE WHO APPE AR IN TH IS AC COUNT xv IN KONGOR 01 02 BUSA FUMANGURU, elder of the North Kingdom, murdered 03 HIS WIFE, murdered 04 HIS SONS, murdered 05 THE SEVEN WINGS, mercenaries 06 KAFUTA, lord of a house 07 MISS WADADA, owner of a brothel 08 EKOIYE, a whore who loves civet musk 09 THE BUFFALO, a very smart buffalo 10 KONGORI CHIEFTAIN ARMY, local constables 11 third prefect of the Kongori chieftain army MOSSI OF AZAR, 12 a prefect MAZAMBEZI, 13 another Ogo RED OGO, 14 another Ogo BLUE OGO, 15 the Ogo fight master THE MASTER OF ENTERTAINMENTS, 16 his slave LALA, 17 THE MAWANA WITCHES, dirt mermaids, a.k.a. mud jengu 18 19 IN DOLINGO AND THE MWERU 20 21 OLD MAN, lord of a hut and southern griot 22 THE QUEEN OF DOLINGO, as it says 23 Her chancellor 24 Dolingon slave boy 25 THE WHITE SCIENTISTS, darkest of the necromancers and alchemists 26 BAD IBEJI, a malformed twin 27 JAKWU, white guard for King Batuta 28 IPUNDULU, vampire lightning bird 29 SASABONSAM, winged brother of Asanbosam 30 ADZE, vampire and bug swarm 31 ELOKO, grass troll and cannibal 32 LISSISOLO OF AKUM, sister of Kwash Dara, nun of the divine sisterhood S33 SHADOWINGS, night demons who serve the Aesi N34 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd xiv 9/7/18 10:46 PM 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd xv 9/7/18 10:46 PM xvi T HOSE WHO APPEAR IN THIS ACCOUNT 01 I N M I T U 02 IKEDE, a southern griot 03 KAMANGU, a son 04 NIGULI, a son 05 KOSU, a son 06 LOEMBE, a son 07 NKANGA, a son 08 KHAMSEEN, a daughter 09 10 11 I N T H E M A L A N G I K A A N D T H E S O U T H K I N G D OM 12 A young witch 13 small gremlin who makes himself invisible 14 TOKOLOSHE, A merchant 15 His wife 16 His son 17 18 KULIKWAYO, a white scientist turned monster 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33S 34N 9780735220171_BlackLeopard_TX.indd xvi 9/7/18 10:46 PM BLOOD COMMUN ION A Tale of Prince Lestat The Vampire Chronicles ANNE RICE illustrations by mark edward geyer Alfred A. Knopf New York 2018 Rice_9781524732646_3p_all_r1.z.indd 3 7/16/18 12:20 PM this is a borzoi book published by alfred a. knopf Copyright © 2018 by Anne O’Brien Rice All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. www.aaknopf.com Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Grateful acknowledgment is made to United Agents LLP on behalf of Caitriona Yeats for permission to reprint an excerpt of “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” by W. B. Yeats. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Rice, Anne, [date] author. Title: Blood communion : a tale of Prince Lestat / by Anne Rice. Description: First edition. | New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2018. | Series: Vampire chronicles Identifiers: lccn 2017058218 | isbn 9781524732646 (hardcover)| isbn 9781524732653 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Lestat (Vampire), 1760– —Fiction. | Atlantis (Legendary place)—Fiction. | Spirit possession—Fiction. | Vampires—Fiction. | Paranormal fiction. | gsafd: Fantasy fiction. | Horror fiction. | Occult fiction.