Guy Gavriel Kay, bestselling author of the groundbreaking novels UNDER HEAVEN and RIVER OF STARS, once again visits a world that evokes one that existed in our own past, this time the tumultuous period of Renaissance Europe-a world on the verge of war, where ordinary lives play out in the grand scheme of kingdoms colliding.
From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the Grand Khalif at his request-and possibly to do more-and a beautiful oman, posing as a doctor's wife in her role of a spy.
The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the clever younger son of a merchant family -with ambivalence about the life he's been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif-to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming.
As these lives entwine, their fates-and those of many others-will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world...
Read MoreKay triumphs at creating complex political landscapes and then populating them with characters who make the stakes important and the struggles real. Another magnificent history-that-never-was from a master. - Library Journal
Guy Gavriel Kay has a wonderful talent. He tells stories in an invented world that is so rich in historical echoes that I found myself smiling with pleasure as I heard the echoes, while engrossed in the story. Warmly recommended. - Edward Rutherfurd
The greatest living author of epic fantasy - Brandon Sanderson
[Kay] wields plots and all-too-human characters brilliantly, in a world where nothing is as valuable as information. This big, powerful fantasy offers an intricately detailed setting, marvelously believable characters, and an international stew of cultural and religious conflict writ larger than large. - Publishers Weekly
Its power derives less from its tweaking of history than from its complex, nuanced characters whose stories come to intertwine in revealing ways . . . Kay has a remarkable gift for lending surprising depth to even walk-on figures. - Locus
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