The Middle Reaches
Four Cycles. One Expanding Story.
The Middle Reaches is an epic of weird, cosmic horror and dark fantasy told across four interconnected cycles.
The story begins with a relatively intimate mystery: five friends reunite to seek the truth about the otherworldly place where a high-school friend disappeared more than a decade earlier. Their search takes them into a dark realm populated by dangerous forces, creatures, and mysteries that challenge what their ideas about the universe.
As the series continues, the story expands. New characters enter The Middle Reaches, earlier characters and events continue to matter, and the paths established in one cycle cross those of another. Cycle Two introduces new characters on an earlier timeline whose journeys intersect with those of Cycle One while taking them farther into the darkness of The Middle Reaches and beyond “The Gate” where The Middle Reaches’ survivors eventually arrive.
The result is not four unrelated books, but a larger narrative with a scope that broadens as the series develops.
The Middle Reaches brings together horror, dark fantasy, weird fiction, strange environments, monsters, mystery, and increasingly expansive stakes. The series is intended for readers willing to follow a story as its individual mysteries and characters gradually become part of something larger.
Start with Cycle One: Shadow Man and follow the story through all four cycles.
The Story
The Middle Reaches is a four-cycle epic of weird, cosmic horror and dark fantasy. The story begins with a search for answers about an otherworldly place connected to the disappearance of a high-school friend, but the journey does not remain confined to that original mystery.
As the cycles progress, new characters enter the story, earlier characters and events continue to matter, and paths that initially appear separate begin to intersect. The world of The Middle Reaches also expands, taking the story farther into strange realms, darker mysteries, and increasingly consequential conflicts.
Each cycle has its own characters, settings, and immediate concerns, but the four cycles are designed to be experienced as parts of a larger story.
Cycle One: Shadow Man begins the journey.
Cycle Two: A Rift in Time and Space carries the story farther into The Middle Reaches and beyond The Gate.
Cycle Three: The Flood brings new and familiar characters deeper into Carcosa, toward Lake Hali and the Palace of the King in Yellow.
Cycle Four: The Army of Ghosts brings the series to its largest confrontation as gods, monsters, ghosts, and humans contend for the fate of the earthly and other realms.
For readers who enjoy weird fiction, dark fantasy, cosmic horror, and long-form stories with connections that become clearer as they unfold, The Middle Reaches is best experienced from the beginning and followed through all four cycles.
Explore the Four Cycles
Follow the creek…
- Cycle One: Shadow Man — Start the series here.
- Cycle Two: A Rift in Time and Space — Continue the journey.
- Cycle Three: The Flood— Continue deeper into the story.
- Cycle Four: The Army of Ghosts — Complete the series.
Begin with The Middle Reaches, Cycle One: Shadow Man
