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Summary
Summary
The acclaimed authors of The Map of Moments and The Secret Journeys of Jack London join creative forces once more in this epic, standalone novel--an exciting dark fantasy of gods and mortals, fools and heroes, saviors and destroyers with a brilliant beam of hope at its core--that should more than appeal to readers of N.K. Jemisin and Brandon Sanderson.
In the great kingdom of Quandis, everyone is a slave. Some are slaves to the gods. Most are slaves to everyone else.
Blessed by the gods with lives of comfort and splendor, the royal elite routinely perform their duties, yet some chafe at their role. A young woman of stunning ambition, Princess Phela refuses to allow a few obstacles--including her mother the queen and her brother, the heir apparent--stand in the way of claiming ultimate power and glory for herself.
Far below the royals are the Bajuman. Poor and oppressed, members of this wretched caste have but two paths out of servitude: the priesthood . . . or death.
Because magic has been kept at bay in Quandis, royals and Bajuman have lived together in an uneasy peace for centuries. But Princess Phela's desire for power will disrupt the realm's order, setting into motion a series of events that will end with her becoming a goddess in her own right . . . or ultimately destroying Quandis and all its inhabitants.
Author Notes
Christopher Golden is the co-author of The Watcher's Guide and several Buffy the Vampire Slayer books, and the author of many other adult and teen thrillers. He is also a comic-book writer and pop-culture critic.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This hefty sword-and-sorcery adventure from frequent collaborators Golden and Lebbon (The Shadow Men) leaves room to bring its large, entangled cast of characters to a wider stage. At the beginning, the kingdom of Quandis is at peace. The study of magic has been left to the priesthood and largely ignored. Cunning and ruthless Princess Phela sees the awful effects of her mother's addiction to magical lore, but once Phela becomes queen, she can't resist the temptation of supernatural power. Meanwhile, Demos, the studly betrothed of Phela's younger sister, is sold into slavery after his father is executed for blasphemy; Blane, a young member of the Bajuman caste (hereditarily lower than any slave) who doesn't believe in the gods, stealthily trains as a priest but unwillingly begins to suspect that the gods and their magic are real; and Blane's supposedly dead sister, Daria, becomes a swashbuckling admiral in the Quandian fleet. There's something for everyone here, including some subtly feminist themes and several spectacular displays of magical conflict. This novel is an expert crowd-pleaser. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A once-strong kingdom is torn by power struggles in this one-volume epic.In several senses, the city of Lartha, capital of the Kingdom of Quandis, is founded on the Four, four ancient sorcerers-turned-gods. Quandis' rulers claim to be descended from the Four, and the most senior priests of the Temple of Four, known as the High Order, are said to perform magic by drawing on the power of the Four, who are allegedly buried beneath the Temple. The threat to that foundation begins when Queen Lysandra unlawfully attempts to gain control over magic herself but is defeated by her drug addiction and inability to master the discipline that magic requires. Her ruthlessly ambitious middle child, Princess Phela, had initially planned to seize the throne and rule through the information she's gathered by creeping through the palace's hidden passages. But now her plots have a wider scope: She wants to master magic for herself and make her rule a divine one. As Quandis shudders underneath her tyranny and the priesthood suffers a schism, a few gather to oppose the new queen: Demos, an unfairly disgraced and enslaved baron's son; Blane, a young man of the Bajuman, the despised slave caste, who joined the priesthood to seek his own access to magic; his disguised sister, Adm. Daria Hallarte; and Phela's underestimated younger sister, Princess Myrinne. In a genre overcrowded by ever expanding series, this book demonstrates that there is plenty of room for action and intrigue in a stand-alone. There are some fairly graphic and brutal mutilations and deaths, but that darkness is balanced against sympathetic, and in some cases even pure-hearted, characters. The worldbuilding is fairly solid even if it would've been nice to understand more about how the priests wielded magic without it carving out their insides.A nicely self-contained and kinetic excursion into political fantasy.
Booklist Review
A battle for the soul of a city is brewing. The Quandian kingdom was founded by the Four, gods whose magic still resides deep beneath the capital city. Up above, the royal family and the great clans enjoy lives of wealth and luxury, served by the lowly Bajuman, slaves deemed not worthy of their notice. Against clerical advice, Queen Lysandra incautiously attempts to gain full use of the Four's power and is driven insane. Ascending in her place is Princess Phela, who has been plotting to gain the throne since childhood. Her greed could disrupt the stability of the realm and result in her own insanity. Unknown to each other, two Bajuman siblings have attained positions in the priesthood and royal navy, respectively, and each is determined to free their people from slavery. The ensuing mayhem is epic. Horror titans Golden (Ararat, 2017) and Lebbon (Relics, 2017), who previously teamed up on the YA series The Secret Journeys of Jack London (The Wild, 2011), meld their talents again in this fantasy of madness and war.--Lockley, Lucy Copyright 2018 Booklist
