Serf

By Dan Hallagan

"What is Hell like?"

How would you answer such a question? Even a powerful angel who knows about every detail of Hell struggles to explain that place shrouded in mystery that no one wants to visit, but about which everyone is at least a little bit curious.

If Hell is not lakes of boiling blood and demons with whips, what is it?

The life of Earl Cornelius Manningham-a military leader and powerful ruler on a distant planet populated by the most savage, unpleasant citizens one can imagine-is an excellent place to start, the angel decides. Earl Cornelius is violent, obnoxious, cruel, hateful, disgusting, and more than a little bit crazy-just about everything bad all shoved into one soul: a hellish creature if there ever was one. She commands his life story be written-this very book-but does she get what she expects?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dan Hallagan
• Release date: Jul 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301567638

Book preview

Chapter 1

Birthing Barn

Farmstead, Manningham, Northern Continent

How to begin.

Excellency, do I just start talking? Can that…thing write down everything I say fast enough?

I see.

I am, however, uncertain what part of my life story Your Excellency desires. Where should I start? When I rose to the rank of earl? Or perhaps my time as a reeve in Cattivo; that would make a good story, if I may say so.

At the beginning? Which beginning? My time as a serf in Manningham? Or perhaps before…

What’s that, Your Excellency? Your reader has no interest in memories before I was born? But those memories explain so much.

Yes, yes, I understand, Your Excellency! No need to get upset. I will not talk about the time before my life as a Climber.

My earliest memories as a serf, then.

Did you know that I remember the very moment I was born? Unlike humans, my people are born with their minds fully developed and entirely aware of their surroundings. We do not have to learn how to think, walk, talk, or eat. I would say the experience is more like waking up than being