Green & Deadly Things

For fans of S.A. Chakraborty, Robin Hobb, and Martha Wells's Witch King, a page-turning standalone fantasy of necromancy and magical mayhem from Jenn Lyons, the acclaimed author of The Ruin of Kings.

Centuries ago, necromancy almost destroyed the world. That's how history remembers it.

History remembers it wrong.

Mathaiik has trained all his life to join the sacred order of the Idallik Knights, charged with defending their world from the forces of necromancy. Only vestiges of that cursed magic remain, nothing like the fabled days of the Grim Lords, the undead wizards who once nearly destroyed the world.

But when an even stranger kind of monster begins to wake, the Knights quickly prove powerless to stop them. Whole forests are coming alive and devouring anyone so foolish as to trespass, as if the land itself has turned upon humanity.

It's a good thing, then, that the Grim Lords were never truly destroyed. One of their number sleeps below the Knights' very fortress. And when an army of twisted tree monsters attacks the young initiates in his charge, Math decides to do the unthinkable: he wakes her up.

This is only the beginning of his problems. Because said necromancer, Kaiataris, knows something history has forgotten. The threat of this wild magic is part of a cycle that has repeated countless times-life after death, chaos after order. And if she and Math can't find a new way to balance the scales, this won't just be the end of the world as they know it, but the end of all life, everywhere.

Author: Jenn Lyons
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 03/03/2026
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.22lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.39w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781250342188


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 02/01/2026
Library Journal 12/01/2025 pg. 63

About the Author
Twice-nominated Astounding Award finalist Jenn Lyons lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, a rebellious cait sìth, and a nearly infinite number of opinions on everything from Sumerian mythology to the proper way to make a martini. After thirty years as a graphic artist, art director, and video game producer (in that order), Lyons now happily splits her time between game development and novel writing. Her geek roots run deep, beginning with first edition Dungeons & Dragons in grade school and continuing today with an ever-evolving roster of hobbies--recent obsessions include pyrography, stenography, and medieval occult manuscripts. She is also the author of The Sky on Fire and the A Chorus of Dragons series, which begins with The Ruin of Kings.