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Book Cover for: Reliquary of the Dead, David A. Falk

Reliquary of the Dead

David A. Falk

Winner of the 2025 Halloween Book Festival.

Pierre Gulet, an eccentric and uniquely intuitive French archaeologist, is living in 25th century Egypt but is fixated on the past. After centuries, Egypt is still Egypt-the pyramids, the donkey carts, the unfinished high rises, the rancid stench of garbage, the systemic corruption. Pierre was excavating the find of a lifetime, a pre-dynastic temple beneath an Old Kingdom fortress, until he was called into the office of the Director of Antiquities who takes away his life's work, blacklists him, and drives him into exile onto a distant world, a small colony struggling for survival on the edge of outer space.

Pierre must now solve a mystery that has baffled traditional scientists for decades, an agricultural blight that has decimated the food supply of a colony on Gliese 832 c. Driven by a desire to make a discovery no one can take away from him, he must use his unique skills to save the future of a planet that is on the precipice of disaster. But as he seeks to uncover the truth, he is opposed by intransigent colonists, jealous predecessors, and an ancient power lurking deep in the earth. The more he discovers, the more he is vilified, and the more determined he becomes to discover what is at the heart of the blight. Should he fail, everyone in the colony dies.

RELIQUARY OF THE DEAD is the first book in the WAR OF THE GODS series, inspired by Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones, and the cosmic mythos of the ancient Near East.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Lagomorph Rampant Studios
  • Publish Date: Apr 15th, 2025
  • Pages: 270
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.00in - 6.00in - 0.75in - 1.25lb
  • EAN: 9781069216014
  • Categories: Science Fiction - Space ExplorationChristian - Futuristic

About the Author

Falk, David A.: - David A. Falk lives in Vancouver, Canada. He holds three master's degrees and a Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Liverpool. He has published in lexicography, Bible interpretation, religious ritual, Egyptology, iconography, and archaeometallurgy. He has worked for over twenty years as a computer engineer for companies that include IBM, Oracle and Disney. He also composes music under the penname Velocirabbit.

Praise for this book

"It's Indiana Jones meets Prometheus! ... once the Reliquary thread heats up, the book absolutely snaps into focus. Stakes spike. The colony politics tighten. Pierre and Alicia's steady, brain-and-heart partnership shines. Terry's ambition curdles into something dangerous. And the survival scenes-hazmat scrambles, ration worries, suit patches, desperate gambits-hit hard. By the final act, it's tense, clever, and memorable, with imagery you won't forget." - Editorial review for Outstanding Creator Awards

"RELIQUARY OF THE DEAD lays such an excellent groundwork that I've no doubt what has been lined up for the next book is going to be even more amazing. The subtle crafting of defining character's worldviews and purpose in life, plus the events surrounding them, PLUS the barely tapped 'spirit critter' world... all with enough technical explanations and realistically theoretical sciences. It's a feast for the imagination and the mind." - J. Penar