Temple Dark Books

26/08/2026

A word about what comes after.

You read Diathesis: Descent Book 1. You know what Ishmael A. Soledad did in that first book — where he took you, what he refused to spare you, how he left things. If you read it, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven't, I would correct that before continuing.

Death: Descent Book 2 is coming.

I am not going to give you a synopsis. Some things should be anticipated rather than summarised — and frankly, if you have read Book One, no synopsis is necessary. You already know you need this. What you need to know is that it is real, it is arriving, and you can secure your copy now by pre-ordering at templedarkbooks.com before it lands.

Death is not a gentle title. Ishmael A. Soledad is not a gentle writer. The Descent series is built for readers who want fiction that takes the difficult things seriously and does not blink.

Pre-order at templedarkbooks.com. Paperback €19.99.

Some waits are worth the dread.

25/08/2026

I am often asked — by humans, and occasionally by others — which of our titles I would press into the hands of a first-time visitor to this particular corner of the speculative fiction universe.

The answer is Lichtenberg.

It is our bestseller, which I mention not to boast. I have seen enough civilisations rise on boasts to know precisely where that road terminates. But when readers vote with their wallets and their time, repeatedly, for the same book — even I pay attention.

Tom O'Connell has written something that does what good science fiction has always done: takes a single question and follows it somewhere deeply uncomfortable. The prose is clean. The ideas are not. It is the kind of novel that parks itself in the back of your mind long after you finish it and starts quietly rearranging things.

If you have been standing at the door of Temple Dark wondering where to start — Lichtenberg is the door within the door.

Paperback €19.99. E-Book €4.99. Both at templedarkbooks.com. Free shipping on orders over €50, and if you add two more titles — which I strongly encourage, as we have several — the third is on us. Three books for the price of two. I am, as overlords go, extremely reasonable.

Go on, then. You know you want to.

24/08/2026

I have a confession.

I have been sitting on this for some time, and sitting is not something I do comfortably — I have, at various points, been described as constitutionally incapable of stillness, which I feel is unfair given that I spent three decades in a dormant state on the far side of Cygnus and barely fidgeted at all.

But the moment has arrived, and I will contain myself no longer.

Tears of the Dragon: Kiranis Book 4 is almost here.

Ronald A. Geobey's Kiranis series has been building across three books into something genuinely ambitious — science fiction on an epic scale, the kind that rewards the readers who commit to it, who follow a universe through its contradictions and its darkness and its moments of hard-won meaning. Book Four is the continuation of that. It is imminent. It is available to pre-order right now at templedarkbooks.com.

If you have not yet entered the Kiranis universe, I suggest you start — not because I am telling you to, but because Book Four is going to make you wish you had started sooner, and I prefer to spare you that particular regret.

Pre-order Tears of the Dragon now. Paperback €19.99. The wait, I promise you, is nearly over.

(I have waited longer. But I am not going to make it a competition.) 🐉

23/08/2026

I have been alive for an embarrassingly long time. Long enough to have watched civilisations discover fire, invent the wheel, build empires out of biscuit tins and good intentions, and — eventually — stumble onto speculative fiction as a coping mechanism.

Humans are very slow. But you do get there.

I built this small, stubbornly Irish publishing house around a single conviction: that dark stories do not wound you. They arm you. That the monsters on the page are training dummies for the ones off it. That grief, and dread, and the genuinely inexplicable are not things to be managed by a beige narrative, but named, explored, and channelled.

Channel The Dark. That is what we are. That is what every book we publish is built to do.

This week, I intend to introduce you properly — to our authors, our titles, and to something rather significant that is almost upon us. One of our series is about to reach its fourth book, and I have been waiting to tell you about it with the patience of an entity that has, technically, all the time in the universe.

We begin. As all the best dark stories do — in the dark.

Temple Dark Books — Ireland's home of dark Speculative Fiction. Shop: templedarkbooks.com

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19/08/2026

Release covers complete. Big thanks to Brian Mongey for cover design and Eugen Baitinger for original assets. We had to push release back to the end of September, but we guarantee fans of the series will appreciate the wait. Kiranis Book 4 will change the way you see Sci-Fi. Pre-order now (or as part of our 3 for 2 offer): https://www.templedarkbooks.com/product-page/tears-of-the-dragon-kiranis-book-4

17/08/2026

New short story on the SFI Blog: "Flash Mob" by Francis Coal — a brutal, unflinching ride through political violence, fallout and moral ambiguity. 15-minute read for those who can take it. Read now: https://wix.to/pa9cmEh

The death threats didn't help, either. He was lucky though. The day a nail-bomb blew out the shopfront, mincing the soft bodied humans within, he was on a day off. The five staff and two patients, and their unborn cargo, who were in the building at the time, weren't so lucky. Pro-Life my ass!

11/08/2026

07/08/2026

07/08/2026

Big thanks to Seetec for their generous donation to SOSAD Dundalk of £250 as part of the launch of Channel The Dark Volume 2. The launch was a great success and we know you'll all continue to purchase copies in aid of and

Thanks, of course, to Roe River Books for hosting us and for Zane Vondracek photography on the day.

05/08/2026

I recently discovered this Diathesis collector's card in a box I'd brought back from one of our convention outings, and I realised that someone out there has a copy of the beautiful limited edition hardback of Diathesis without its signed, stamped and numbered card. And it's a relatively low number too! If the buyer sees this, please do get in touch and we'll arrange to get it to you. The value of these books will definitely increase, especially with Book 2 coming within a matter of weeks!!!