Set in an explosive new world inspired by a fusion of South African and Finnish mythology, Born of Malice is a queer dark fantasy of epic stakes for fans of Chinazo Bado, James Islington, and John Gwynne. God-siblings clash across realms and amidst political machinations, bleeding reality-breaking chaos into the streets.
Savat is an ancient city steeped in old magic. But the once god-fearing Savati people find themselves in the tightening fist of the Sodality, a tyrannical power determined to replace magic with technology, and eradicate all devotion to the old gods.
Yet gods still move among them.
Zal, Chaos incarnate, unjustly exiled to the mortal realm, lives for revenge against his family. In secluded ruins accompanied by his devoted, magic-wielding arkani, he is poised to seize the life stolen from him and claim the Nether for his own.
Riksa, War shackled, is the tormented captive of her brother Zal in his obsessive quest to open a way between the realms. With her treacherous tongue and machinations, she is committed to Zal's final destruction.
Leksi, Nightmare disincarnate, has always resented her metaphysical family destined to cause human suffering. Striving to live free from magic and never see her family again, her dream of a simple life in the mortal realm is put on hold by the bloodied and broken arrival of her sibling, leaking reality-breaking essence into the world.
In Savat's university, the scholar Niki prepares an experiment dangerous to Sodality-imposed rule. Though unskilled in the talents of the arkani, the fruit of Niki's groundbreaking research would harness magic through music, sound, and vibration itself, giving anyone the ability to access the arcane.
When worlds are ripe for annihilation, all it takes is one god-sized sibling rivalry to light a conflagration.
'Drawing from African traditions to create a world so vivid you can smell the carnage and taste the entropy, this is Xan van Rooyen at their bold, bloody best.'

—Cheryl S. Ntumy, author of Black Friday and Other Stories from Africa
'With characters you can both admire and loathe, this is a richly imagined world, and a silky-smooth narrative, barbed with ancient familial angst for good measure.'

—Stephen Embleton, 2024 Nommo Award Winner for Best Speculative Fiction Novella, Undulation