The Astrologer

"As long as Denmark looks backward, there will be bloodshed." It is December of 1601. Soren Andersmann, the Danish royal astrologer, has smuggled a trunk full of poisons, daggers, and a venomous snake into the royal castle at Elsinore. Though Soren knows nothing of the assassin's trade, he has sworn to be the instrument of justice. King Christian IV has murdered Soren's mentor and spiritual father, Tycho Brahe, the most famous astronomer the world has seen. Soren will have his revenge. The Astrologer takes us into the world of Europe on the edge of the Renaissance. It is a world ruled by the sword, where civilization is held in place by violence and blind loyalty. The birth of science is still overshadowed by medieval religion, but men are learning to think for themselves. In 1601, a man who thinks for himself is a dangerous man. Soren Andersmann, the astrologer, is becoming a dangerous man. REVIEWS: "The Astrologer is a marvelous story of fierce revenge and murder as staggering as the constellations above. I simply couldn't look away. A vivid debut!" --Michelle Davidson Argyle, author of The Breakaway and Monarch "It's elegant, it's sly, it's funny as all hell, and the unreliable narrator is both heroic and heartbreaking; a poignant embodiment of the Enlightenment fairy tales our society likes to tell itself." --Tara Maya, author of The Unfinished Song and Conmergence "A philosophic stunner that evokes the wintry islands of Beowulf and the castles of Hamlet. Set in the predawn of the Enlightenment, Bailey's stargazing protagonist struggles against the dark forces that forever keep us ignorant. Haunting, expansive, poetic, and it has sword fights." --Layne Maheu, author of Song of the Crow "If you, like any red-blooded human being with an unquenchable love for both the science of the cosmos and spine-crushing, gore-spewing violence, prefer to have your 17th century Danish astronomical historical fiction infused with swordfights, explosions, court intrigues, assassination plots, sexy adulterous affairs, psychotic nutcases, bears, midgets, and a Shakespearean flair for multifarious backstabbing murder-fests, The Astrologer is going to blow your mind like Tycho Brahe blew the hell out of Aristotle's antiquated belief in an unchanging celestial realm." - Ben Thompson, author of BADASS