Ruby tells the story of horror movie actor Ruby Castle and the tragedy that befalls her, in snapshots and fleeting glimpses and secret histories, in tales repeated and reinvented by those who fall under her spell: her childhood sweetheart, a young chess prodigy, an antiquarian bookseller with a passion for magical artifacts, the mistress of the poet who was once Castle’s lover, a young girl in a future Russia who dreams of the stars. Worlds collide, and the boundaries between the real and the fantastic begin to break down. Is Ruby Castle a living person or a collective fantasy? By the time the final page of Stardust is turned, the world that Castle created through her films has become dangerously indistinguishable from our own.
Originally published as Stardust in 2013 by PS Publishing, the new Titan edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded, and includes a brand new story.
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The cover art is by Julia Lloyd.