The End is here.

A god cannot change.
Watch me.

With the truth of Ace's terrible past revealed, our nameless soul eater has never been more lost, or more powerful.

The gods have risen, New York has fallen and the sundering is upon us.

Ace can stop the end of the world, but will he?

***

I'm going to miss this series. Ace and his efforts to steer on the side of good, Shukra and her wonderfully blunt outlook on everything (and casual murderous tendencies!), Cujo trying to fight the good fight against the gods who almost killed him, Bastet who—by the tip of Ace's sword—set a course into motion that brings us to this final book, Cat and her staunch loyalty. And the amazing cast of characters we've met along the way. Oh, and the sword, Alysdair: this is the first time I've written a character as a sword. Who doesn't love enchanted soul eating swords? I'm actually pretty fond of that blade. Even the sword gets its own story in Soul Eater.

Dayam, I'm going to miss all of that. And, judging from my emails, y'all will too (not to mention a few tongue-in-cheek death threats to continue the series (at least with a Shukra spin-off) or else! - you know who you are ;) ).

Finishing up a series is one of the hardest things an author can do, both mentally and creatively. Every loose end must be tied up. Every tossed out question, every dangling what if, and there were a lot of loose ends in Soul Eater. It was an interesting exercise, in that we (the reader) knew more than the character right up until book #5. Our main character, Ace, loses his memory early on in the series. But we don't. We know his secrets and through every book, I was very much aware of how the story Ace was telling, was different to the one we - as readers - were reading. Technically, that made it tricky. But it also made it a heck of a lot of fun because the secret was there, like a rather large sphinx in the room, waiting to be outed at any moment, like a ticking countdown clock.

I also had a lot of fun with the language and the research. Initially, I was going to use ancient Egyptian for Ace's spellwords, but if you've ever seen ancient Egyptian, it's not the most pleasing to read and frankly, would have gotten in the way of the storytelling. So I made a call to "create" the spoken language, which meant not only could my audiobook narrator actually speak it, but you can go ahead and read it without slowing the story down.

I still have the book of genuine Egyptian spells on my shelf, should, yah know, anyone think of one-starring the entire series (j/k, maybe ;) ) There are some interesting enchantments in there, if I can get my hands on the right ingredients. Shukra would have some body parts handy.

When it comes to research, Scorpion Trap, was the book where I really got my teeth into Egyptian myth. Right from the very beginning, I couldn't wait to get Ace back to Egypt. Once there, we go full on The Mummy 1999 version (the cool one, not the Tom Cruise one) complete with tomb robbing, clouds of locusts, the Hatshepsut and Senenmut "love" story, and it all comes to a climax that I can't reveal here for spoilers. I adore Egypt. I'm fascinated by the remains and relics still being discovered today. To get to play in that sandbox was a real treat.

In fact, this entire series has been a treat to write. It hasn't been without its ups and downs. Writing Osiris and Isis often made my skin want to crawl off my body and hide in a corner. But the joy of writing Ace and Shukra was truly something special. Sometimes, characters come together and they just click. Ace and Shukra... dayam... they must be one of the best urban fantasy partnerships ever, and not a hint of romance in sight! ;)

Yes, I'm going to miss them and this world.

But, there are always more book adventures to be had. So I'd better start creating the next one...

You can buy Soul Eater via my website or search your favorite vendor. The first book, Hidden Blade, is 99¢ right now, to celebrate the launch of Edge of Forever and the end of the series. www.pippadacosta.com

Happy reading!