
Sister Wake
the devastating and epic high fantasy phenomenon - perfect for fans of Irish mythology
Dave Rudden(Author)
Hodderscape (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 15. January 2026
Book
Hardback
560 pages
978-1-3997-3261-1 (ISBN)
Description
'THE RARE EPIC FANTASY THAT HITS ON ALL LEVELS' ANDREA STEWART
'LIKE NOTHING YOU'VE EVER READ' LEV GROSSMAN
THE GODS WERE HERE. AND THEY WERE ANGRY.
For three hundred years the wild island of Croi? has been subject to the Empire of the Answering. Clans have been subjugated, their language outlawed, their religion reduced to the whisper of fugitive priests.
Until Croi?'s prayers are answered. The Gods return. Feral and majestic, they stride the land as colossi, throwing the Empire into chaos.
The dispossessed and the vengeful struggle for power. A ruthless priestess rallies the faithful, offering a simple choice - believe, or die - even as the empire's Queen makes the first moves in a long and dangerous game.
But for all their machinations, one woman will decide the fate of them all . . . Sister Wake, unwilling saint of the Goddess of Death.
An action-packed, lush epic fantasy filled with rebellion, intrigue, horror, gigantic dangerous gods, and Celtic mythology, perfect for fans of James Islington, John Gwynne, and Joe Abercrombie.
AUTHORS LOVE THIS EPIC STORY
'Quite simply dazzling' SOPHIE WHITE
'I absolutely loved its epic mix of weird horror and revolutionary intrigue' GARETH HANRAHAN
'A layered, epic world made all the more brutal by the return of gods terrifying and unknown' DAVID DALGLISH
'Two hundred-foot kaiju gods, necromancy, and anti-colonial rebellion - what more could you ask for?' RYAN ROSE
'A brilliant, rebellious scream' R.S.A. GARCIA
'An uprising of furious pride and eldritch horror, where neither gods nor heroes can be trusted' HELEN CORCORAN
'LIKE NOTHING YOU'VE EVER READ' LEV GROSSMAN
THE GODS WERE HERE. AND THEY WERE ANGRY.
For three hundred years the wild island of Croi? has been subject to the Empire of the Answering. Clans have been subjugated, their language outlawed, their religion reduced to the whisper of fugitive priests.
Until Croi?'s prayers are answered. The Gods return. Feral and majestic, they stride the land as colossi, throwing the Empire into chaos.
The dispossessed and the vengeful struggle for power. A ruthless priestess rallies the faithful, offering a simple choice - believe, or die - even as the empire's Queen makes the first moves in a long and dangerous game.
But for all their machinations, one woman will decide the fate of them all . . . Sister Wake, unwilling saint of the Goddess of Death.
An action-packed, lush epic fantasy filled with rebellion, intrigue, horror, gigantic dangerous gods, and Celtic mythology, perfect for fans of James Islington, John Gwynne, and Joe Abercrombie.
AUTHORS LOVE THIS EPIC STORY
'Quite simply dazzling' SOPHIE WHITE
'I absolutely loved its epic mix of weird horror and revolutionary intrigue' GARETH HANRAHAN
'A layered, epic world made all the more brutal by the return of gods terrifying and unknown' DAVID DALGLISH
'Two hundred-foot kaiju gods, necromancy, and anti-colonial rebellion - what more could you ask for?' RYAN ROSE
'A brilliant, rebellious scream' R.S.A. GARCIA
'An uprising of furious pride and eldritch horror, where neither gods nor heroes can be trusted' HELEN CORCORAN
Reviews / Votes
Sister Wake is the rare epic fantasy that hits on all levels - lushly descriptive, meticulously plotted, dizzyingly vast, and with characters that breathe and bleed with the sort of vigour that makes you look up from the page and wonder that they're not sitting right next to you * Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter * Sister Wake is quite simply dazzling. The vastness of Rudden's rich world is breathtaking while his prose is vivid and exquisite. The words are alive, thrumming on the page and propelling us through this utterly compulsive story * Sophie White, award-winning author of Where I End * I absolutely loved its epic mix of weird horror and revolutionary intrigue. Heartily recommended * Gareth Hanrahan, author of The Sword Defiant * Rudden has masterfully crafted a layered, epic world made all the more brutal by the return of gods terrifying and unknown * David Dalglish, author of The Radiant King * Two hundred-foot kaiju gods, necromancy, and anti-colonial rebellion - what more could you ask for? Dave Rudden's Sister Wake gripped me in its iron chains and carried me forward on prose as beautiful as it was riveting. I practically squealed each time he treated me to a description of his wonderfully grotesque gods * Ryan Rose, author of Seven Recipes for Revolution * A gorgeous work of power and magic, saints and monsters and gods. Don't wait another second: Sister Wake is like nothing you've ever read * Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians * Sister Wake is a brilliant, rebellious scream of a novel with 200 foot tall pissed off gods from Celtic mythology coming for an alternate British Empire in a fever dream of an Irish revenge fantasy. A page-turning epic about people doing monstrous deeds in a desperate bid to win the war between colonizer and colony, it mercilessly shows us that in the war for sovereignty and freedom there can be no saints, only those willing to sell their very souls for victory. * R.S.A. Garcia, Nebula and Sturgeon Award winning author of The Nightward * Sister Wake drags us into an uprising of furious pride and eldritch horror, where neither gods nor heroes can be trusted. An intricate reimagining of Irish history and mythology, chained together with beautiful prose and dark humour * Helen Corcoran, author of Queen of Coin and Whispers *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Hodder & Stoughton
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
N/A
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 47 mm
Weight
814 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3997-3261-1 (9781399732611)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Dave Rudden
Sister Wake
the devastating and epic high fantasy phenomenon - perfect for fans of Irish mythology
E-Book
01/2026
Hodderscape
€7.99
Available for download
Person
Dave Rudden is the author of the award-winning Knights of the Borrowed Dark trilogy as well as several works in the Doctor Who universe. A Creative Fellow at University College Dublin, Dave has written for stage, screen and role-playing games, and his first horror feature script, Help, is in development with Wild Atlantic Pictures. He lives in Dublin with his family and a serial killer cat.