Those Who Went Remain There Still

Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Mark Geyer Heaster Wharton is dead, and his passing might mean an end to hostilities between the Manders and the Coys. If the the elderly patriarch showed the kindness and foresight to split his land cleanly between his feuding descendants, then a truce could be arranged. But his final request is a strange one, delivered across the country to the straggling remnants of his tribe. Representatives from both families must visit a cave at the edge of his property in the hills of Kentucky. There, he promised, they would find his last will and testament. But there's more than paperwork waiting underground, as vindictive old Heaster was well aware. In 1775, Daniel Boone and a band of axe-wielding frontiersmen struggled to clear a path through the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Bluegrass country, and they did not work unopposed. Hounded and harried by an astonishing monster, the axe-men overcame the beast by sheer numbers and steel. They threw its body into a nearby cave. It was not dead. And now, it is not alone. Crippled and outraged, for 100 years something terrible has huddled underground, dreaming of meat and revenge. But its newest callers are heavily armed, skeptical of their instructions, and predisposed to violence. With their guns and their savage instincts, Heaster's grandchildren will not make for easy pickings. Limited: 200 signed numbered copies, with a chapbook of additional exclusive material Trade: fully cloth-bound hardcover edition From Publishers Weekly: "Humor enlivens the action, and Priest (Not Flesh nor Feathers) adds cool touches like Boone's ghost and an angry phantom woman... Mark Geyer’s illustrations lend old-fashioned atmosphere. " From Green Man Review: "In other hands, this could easily have devolved into a rote backwoods gore-fest. After all, all of the ingredients are there: a seemingly unkillable monster, angry hillbillies with guns who don't much like each other, and a party of misfits trapped in a monster's lair as they get picked off, one by one. Then again, that sort of SciFi Original Picture premise generally doesn't account for characters like a gentle spiritualist, guided by ghosts through the beast's domain while trying to make peace amongst his warring relations. It wouldn't be able to handle the constantly shifting viewpoints and narratives, or the graceful characterization Priest imbues her rough-hewn backwoodsmen with. And, to be honest, it just wouldn't have writing this damn good. " From Booklist: "Priest spices the narrative with frequent flashbacks to [Daniel] Boone's own beastly encounters during his trail-cutting days. Ultimately, the gore and the feathers are a bit overdone, though all for the sake of good, gratuitous fun. " From Bookslut: "With Those Who Went Remain There Still Cherie Priest continues her exploration of place and America's ghostly history. Her stories and novels are exquisite in the way they tap into our national consciousness. For older teens and adults Priest is not to be missed and this is certainly one of her best pieces of work to date. (And if you want the story behind the story, the limited edition includes a chapbook by Priest explaining how her family history entwines with Boone. )" From the Rocky Mountain News: "Priest’s tightly constructed novel qualifies as a 'weird Western', in the tradition of Joe R. Lansdale's early work, Nancy Collins' Walking Wolf, George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream, and Emma Bull's Territory. " From Locus: "While it is in some ways the 'cheesy little monster story' she wryly describes in the Acknowledgments, her tale of Daniel Boone, his men, and a squabbling extended family in Kentucky (based on her own kin) near the dawn of the 20th century offers three flavors of fine writing: the voice of Daniel, alternating with two later members of that family, both escapees from Kentucky. " From Blood of the Muse: "Those Who Went Remain There Still was my introduction to Cherie Priest. I guarantee I'll be reading more of her cheesy little monster stories in the future, because this is a monster story with teeth. Big, nasty teeth dripping with gore. A set of glistening chompers that'd make Nosferatu jealous. This is a horror story masterfully written, unique in its setting and brilliant in its execution. And one of the top books of the year. " From SFSite: "Cherie Priest has written an engaging story that draws strongly from the tradition of American Folklore... The story itself is straightforward enough, there were few surprising elements to the plot, but the most notable element of the novel is how deftly Cherie Priest sketched in the characters. From Daniel Boone himself to briefly seen characters such as Granny Gail and Winnter, the people in the novel are all vivid and believable. It's Priest's ability at crafting distinct 'voices' for her characters that helped make the three first person narratives in the novel work. It can be difficult to maintain each 'voice' as distinct and identifiable, however Priest manages it successfully. " From The Sacramento Book Review: “Explaining Those Who Went Remain There Still without sounding delusional should be part of the Mensa admission test: unkillable she-birds, Daniel Boone, psychic sisters, ghost-sensitive men, and Hatfield and-McCoy-style Southern rivalries all play a role—and that’s not even counting the hidden will or the smelly cave of death. ”

Heaster Wharton is dead, and his passing might mean an end to hostilities between the Manders and the Coys. If the the elderly patriarch showed the kindness and foresight to split his land cleanly between his feuding descendants, then a truce could be arranged. But his final request is a strange one, delivered across the country to the straggling remnants of his tribe. Representatives from both families must visit a cave at the edge of his property in the hills of Kentucky. There, he promised, they would find his last will and testament. But there's more than paperwork waiting underground, as vindictive old Heaster was well aware. In 1775, Daniel Boone and a band of axe-wielding frontiersmen struggled to clear a path through the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Bluegrass country, and they did not work unopposed. Hounded and harried by an astonishing monster, the axe-men overcame the beast by sheer numbers and steel. They threw its body into a nearby cave. It was not dead. And now, it is not alone. Crippled and outraged, for 100 years something terrible has huddled underground, dreaming of meat and revenge. But its newest callers are heavily armed, skeptical of their instructions, and predisposed to violence. With their guns and their savage instincts, Heaster's grandchildren will not make for easy pickings.