Indie Press Delivers Complete Literary Fantasy Trilogy — Three Novels, 327,000 Words — Between November 2025 and April 2026
AMES, IA, UNITED STATES, April 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — High Trestle Press today announces the publication of The Mark of Cain, the concluding volume of the Zephyr Arc, the debut trilogy by Z. Bennett Lorimer. With this release, the first complete first arc of Lorimer’s Tales of Ciel series is available in its entirety: Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies (November 2025), Ophiuchus Flinched (February 2026), and The Mark of Cain (April 2026) — three novels published in under six months.
Kirkus Reviews called Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies “a wholly absorbing, otherworldly tale of family, magic, and astonishing creatures.” The completed trilogy delivers on that promise at full scale.
About the Series
Tales of Ciel is set in a world of floating islands where gifted pilots bond with living creatures called Leviathans. At its center is Effie Strait — ambitious, impulsive, desperate to fly — and her older sister Vanna, the moral anchor of the Zephyr Archipelago. The Zephyr Arc follows both sisters across three novels as a colonial power tightens its grip on their islands and the cost of resistance becomes impossible to ignore.
The series draws comparison to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials — an adventure that operates as serious literary fiction without announcing the fact. Where most genre series require readers to invest years before a story resolves, the Zephyr Arc delivers a complete trilogy available today. The arc has a beginning, a middle, and an ending that earns every page that precedes it.
About the Author
Z. Bennett Lorimer is a graduate of the 2014 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Workshop at UC San Diego and holds an MFA in creative writing from Iowa State University. He is the former managing editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing and Environment. He founded High Trestle Press to publish the Tales of Ciel series and three additional ongoing series under the High Trestle Press imprint. He lives in Ames, Iowa.
About the Book
The Mark of Cain — the concluding volume of the Zephyr Arc — brings the consequences of two books to bear in a final act that does not flinch. Effie Strait has risen through the ranks of Kelestina’s Aquilon Court. Vanna Strait, her sister, commands the dragoons of their home islands while colluding with the resistance she cannot fully trust. The Crystal Throne has been patient. It is no longer patient.
472 pages. Available in trade paperback and digital editions.
Publication Details
The Mark of Cain (Tales of Ciel, Book 3) Z. Bennett Lorimer High Trestle Press LLC Publication Date: April 22, 2026 ISBN: 978-1-968122-06-5 (Ebook) | 978-1-968122-07-2 (Trade Paperback)
Available upon request Format: Trade Paperback / Ebook Price: $16.99 (print) / $4.99 (digital) Pages: 472
Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies (Book 1) and Ophiuchus Flinched (Book 2) are available now. Ardent Wings on Jealous Skies is available at $2.99 in digital format through July 2026.
Review Copies
Advance review copies of The Mark of Cain and the complete Zephyr Arc trilogy are available upon request. Z. Bennett Lorimer is available for interviews, podcast appearances, and guest contributions. With his workshop, academic, and literary editorial experience, Lorimer writes and speaks with authority on epic fantasy, the craft of long-form series fiction, and the economics of independent publishing. Interview request and media inquiries to: pr@hightrestlepress.com
High Trestle Press hightrestlepress.com
High Trestle Press is an independent publisher based in Ames, Iowa, founded to publish the works of Z. Bennett Lorimer. Current series include Tales of Ciel, The Compact Cycle, The Divine Heretic, and Shattered.
Z. Bennett Lorimer
High Trestle Press
pr@hightrestlepress.com
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