The Ship of Death A Novel

Recommended by the Chicago Tribune - Esquire - Literary Hub - USA Today - Polygon - Book Riot - Vol 1 Brooklyn - Gizmodo . . . and more!

"An engrossing mix of H.P. Lovecraft and The Blair Witch Project that will frighten Dungeon Crawler Carl superfans." - Esquire

"The Ship of Death makes anxiety part of its form. Told through notes, transcripts, emails and forum posts, the novel stitches its sources together into a Frankenstein monster of a story that refuses to smooth out the seams. There's no narrator to make you feel safe. As the characters become trapped in a sinister role-playing game, you become a pseudo-participant, compelled to see it through." - USA Today

"Reminds me of Harry Stephen Keeler's dossier novels, e.g. 1936's The Marceau Case. Every chapter is a different document. Sometimes this seems like the only honest way to present a piece of fiction: it should consist of words that might conceivably be written down for nonliterary purposes." - Ed Park in Literary Hub, "The Annotated Nightstand"

"An unsettling take on influence: the story of a couple obsessed with a role-playing board game that seems suspiciously like an occult religion." - The Chicago Tribune

"Hang on. You're giving me cosmic horror, literary found footage, and a tabletop game, all in the same novel? It's wickedly funny and weird? Sign me the f*ck up right now." - WIL WHEATON

"Mind f*cking melting." - BENJAMIN PERCY

"Strikingly original, haunting, and cosmically creepy as hell. A nightmarish experience." - DAN CHAON

"Holy f*cking f*ck." - CHUCK WENDIG

"Every turn of the page is a creepy as f*ck critical success D20 roll. Winkler warmed my nerd heart while draining its blood." - SEQUOIA NAGAMATSU

"The uncanny fiction of Kyle Winkler rarely goes where you'd expect. That's also the case for his new book, The Ship of Death, about a tabletop role-playing game with increasingly bizarre rules and a potential link to another world. You might never play Carcassone the same way again." - Vol 1 Brooklyn

"Unsettling and formally audacious. . . Winkler manages to generate a potent sense of otherworldly dread. For readers who relish cosmic horror and TTRPG culture, this daring experiment makes play feel perilously consequential." - Publishers Weekly

"A fresh take on horror. . . an intricately designed story." - Novels Alive