A young man looking for death finds purpose in a world beyond our own with this sweeping fantasy from Greg Keyes (The Briar Ruler, Newton’s Cannon). Errol Greyson hadn’t designed to commit suicide. Roughly he informed himself. But waking up after his “cry for help” in the body of a wood-and-metal construct magically cartoon by Aster?the strange girl from school?was not an outcome he could possess imagined. Aster’s crazy explanations of a quest to get the water of health that could cure her father appeared as about The Reign of the Departed unreal as her explanation of Errol’s personal half-dead life, his consciousness stuck within an enchanted automaton while his real body was in a coma from which it might under no circumstances wake. And of course, they would have to recruit a woman?a virgin, believe it or not?who had been dead for 30 years, to lead them through something called the Pale, beyond which a couple of magical kingdoms existed. Plus, the risk that Aster could switch him off just like a light change, sending him into a hellish oblivion, was a convincing motivation to cooperate. Everything appeared quite mad: Either Aster was nuts, or Errol was hallucinating. But if it intended a new possibility at life, he reckoned it was worth playing along.