A Short, Sharp, Shock

A man tumbles through wild surf, half drowned, to collapse on a moonlit beach. He awakens in a surreal landscape of savage beauty, with no memory of who he is or where he came from. He knows only that the woman who washed ashore with him disappeared sometime in the night. Aided by strange tribesmen, he journeys to the cove of the spine kings, a brutal race that has enslaved the woman and several of the tribesmen. So begins his quest to seek out the identity and the fate of the woman whose hold on his imagination is both unfathomable and unshakable. Haunting and lyrical, filled with uncommon beauty and terrible peril, this luminous short work from one of science fiction's most respected talents confirms his reputation for brilliance and for the unexpected.