Conrad Navarro, modern gladiator in a secret underground battle series called The Pageant, pursues his lost (possibly dead) sister Imogene.

Told in a style quite different from Barron’s recent novel The Croning. Pulpy, fast-moving. Seemingly less serious, yet at its core abysmally dark. Some sections more briskly written, while others contain Barron’s characteristically dense, flavorful descriptions.

As with The Croning, strange events are gradually revealed to take place on a grandiose, primordial scale. Part epic, part comic book, part myth. Gods and demigods stride the Earth, concealed among us, concerning themselves with matters frightful and destructive to ordinary mortals.