Harper Voyager US and The World of Darkness To Publish Audio First Production Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us

HarperCollins is pleased to announce the publication of VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: WALK AMONG US (Harper Voyager US; June 16, 2020), an audio-first trio of horror novellas set in Vampire: The Masquerade’s World of Darkness, one of the most popular role-playing properties in the world.

“The World of Darkness is a transmedia brand that today encompasses everything from video games to immersive events. But it started with books: the written word created our complex dark fantasy world, and it’s in our blood,” Sean Greaney, Brand Manager for the World of Darkness at Paradox Interactive, said. “For years, fiction audiences have thirsted after deep and complex vampire stories. With this partnership, HarperCollins will introduce vampire fans to a whole universe filled with intriguing and intricate stories. We are thrilled to return Vampire: The Masquerade to mainstream fiction with these audiobooks.”

Watch Sean Greaney’s message about the audiobook here.

The subtle horror and infernal politics of the World of Darkness are shown in a new light in Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us, spotlighting the terror, hunger, and power of the Kindred as they’ve never been seen before.

In A SHEEP AMONG WOLVES by Genevieve Gornichec, depression and radicalization go hand-in-hand as a young woman finds companionship in the darkness… In FINE PRINT by Cassandra Khaw, an arrogant tech bro learns the importance of reading the fine print in the contract for immortality… And in LAND OF MILK AND HONEY by Caitlin Starling, ideals and ethics bump heads with appetite on a blood farm.

Three very different stories from three brilliant, distinct voices, but all with one thing in common: the hunger never stops, and for someone to experience power, many others are going to have to feel pain.

Says Harper Voyager US Editorial Director David Pomerico, “Vampire: The Masquerade has always been such a powerful force in the gaming community, it was almost shocking there wasn’t much in print set in the World of Darkness. The opportunity to tell three very different, very powerful stories with three incredible young writers is so exciting, and clearly a no-brainer for Harper Voyager and Harper Audio.”

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Genevieve Gornichec may have tried to major in Vikings when she was in college, but she’s always had a special place in her heart for vampires. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she now lives even deeper in the Midwest with her partner, several reptiles, and a very grumpy cat. Her full-length debut novel, The Witch’s Heart, releases in early 2021.

Cassandra Khaw is a scriptwriter at Ubisoft Montreal. Her fiction has been nominated for the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Award, and her game writing has won a German Game Award. You can find her short stories in places like F&SF, Lightspeed, and Tor.com. Her novella Nothing But Blackened Teeth is coming out from Nightfire, the new Tor horror imprint in 2021.

Caitlin Starling is a writer and spreadsheet-wrangler who lives near Portland, Oregon. Equipped with an anthropology degree and an unhealthy interest in the dark and macabre, she writes horror-tinged speculative fiction of all flavors. Her first novel, The Luminous Dead, is out now from Harper Voyager. She has written for Nightmare Magazine and has two gothic horror projects in the wings: a novella, Yellow Jessamine, forthcoming from Neon Hemlock in 2020, and The Death of Jane Lawrence, a full-length novel with St. Martin’s Press, due out in 2021. Caitlin also works in narrative design for interactive theater and games and has been paid to design body parts. She’s always on the lookout for new ways to inflict insomnia. Find more of her work at www.caitlinstarling.com 

ABOUT THE NARRATORS:
Erika Ishii is an actor known primarily for her voiceover work in games and animation She can be heard in leading roles in Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Sim, Mobile Suit Gundam Narrative (NT), Fire Emblem Heroes, Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock, and Sailor Moon SuperS, among others. Erika has acted and hosted with numerous new media outlets including Geek & Sundry, Critical Role, Nerdist, Screen Junkies, and Collegehumor. She can currently be seen in LA By Night: Vampire the Masquerade.

Xe Sands is an Audie, Voice Arts and Earphones Award-winning narrator known for her authentic and compelling delivery of nearly 350 audiobooks and audio series, specializing in first person, literary and epistolary fiction, memoirs, speculative fiction, and captivating performance of romance. She has been recognized for her work by Salon, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, AudioFile Magazine, Locus Magazine and Audible Editors for titles such as The Murmur of Bees, Euphoria, The Wife, Now That You Mention It, Magic for Liars, Blood Water Paint, and Bookburners.

Neil Kaplan is possibly best known around the world as the voice of Optimus Prime on 2001’s Transformers: Robots in Disguise. On the opposite end of the spectrum of good and evil lies the award-winning portrayal of Emperor Zarkon, from Dreamworks Animation’s Voltron: Legendary Defender.

ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS:
HarperCollins Publishers is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 17 countries. With 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year in 16 languages and has a print and digital catalog of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Newbery and Caldecott Medals and the Man Booker Prize. HarperCollins, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) and can be visited online at corporate.HC.com.

ABOUT PARADOX:
Paradox Interactive is a video game developer and publisher of critically acclaimed strategy game franchises Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, and Stellaris, as well as Age of Wonders, Cities: Skylines, and more. The company purchased the World of Darkness brand portfolio in 2015 and will publish the highly anticipated Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 video game in 2020.

Beyond Bloodlines 2, fans of the World of Darkness have many exciting new games and products coming their way in 2020 and beyond. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, the Werewolf brand’s first video game entry, will launch in 2020. Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York launches later this month on Nintendo Switch and PC, and Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong will release in 2021.  Four new Vampire: The Masquerade board games will come out in the next year, and “LA By Night,” a Vampire: The Masquerade Twitch streaming series has recently expanded to include “Seattle By Night,” a new streaming series from Penny Arcade.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: WALK AMONG US UNABRIDGED

By Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw, and Caitlin Starling

Performed by Erika Ishii, Xe Sands, and Neil Kaplan

On Sale: 6/16/20 | ISBN: 9780062994028 | Price: $26.99 | Length: 10 hrs.