The Court of Shadows
The original novel was published in 2020. Translated by Françoise Bui.
A fiery heroine seeks vengeance against a royal court of deadly vampires in this epic alternate history set in lavish Versailles.
Louis XIV transformed from the Sun King into the King of Shadows when he embraced immortality and became the world’s first vampire. For the last three centuries, he has been ruling the kingdom from the decadent Court of Shadows in Versailles, demanding the blood of his subjects to sate his nobles’ thirst and maintain their loyalty.
In the heart of rural France, commoner Jeanne Froidelac witnesses the king’s soldiers murder her family and learns of her parents’ role in a brewing rebellion involving the forbidden secrets of alchemy. To seek her revenge, Jeanne disguises herself as an aristocrat and enrolls in a prestigious school for aspiring courtiers. She soon finds herself at the doors of the palace of Versailles.
But Jeanne, of course, is no aristocrat. She dreams not of court but of blood.
The blood of a king.
Victor Dixen
Victor Dixen writes at the meeting point of imagined futures and reinvented pasts. Across science fiction, fantasy, horror, and alternate history, his novels have sent teenagers toward Mars, transformed familiar fairy tales, confronted the possibilities of artificial intelligence, and rebuilt the court of Louis XIV as a vampire-ruled empire.
Born to a French mother and Danish father, Dixen grew up with travel as a regular part of life. That international outlook continued into adulthood. He has lived in places including Paris, Denver, Dublin, Singapore, New York, and Washington, D.C., gathering landscapes and cultures that would later feed into his fiction. Another influence has been more constant: insomnia. A lifelong light sleeper, Dixen has described his sleepless nights not simply as a problem, but as companions and sources of imagination.
Vampyria Saga
In the world of Vampyria, the Sun King never died. In 1715, Louis XIV chose immortality instead, transforming himself into a vampire and condemning Europe to an eternal age of darkness. Three centuries later, Versailles still glitters, the aristocracy still rules, and ordinary mortals pay a blood tax to sustain the undead elite.
Vampyria Saga consists of two books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
