- Fiction, Magic, Espionage, Fiction, fantasy, general
The Lowlands' city states have lived in peace for decades, hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize. Only the ageing Stenwold Maker - spymaster, artificer and statesman - forsees the threat, as the empire's armies march ever closer. So it falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of the cities' leaders. He sees that war will sweep through their lands, destroying everything in its path. But to warn his people, he must stay alive.
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Character
Classical in form, grave, earnest and epic.
- classical in formformally daring
- gravecomic
- earnestironic
- intimateepic
- character-ledplot-driven
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About the book
- Author
- Adrian Tchaikovsky
- First published
- 2008
- Pages
- 624
- Publisher
- Pyr, Pan Macmillan, Tor
- Editions
- 7
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781529050264
Where to read
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On Open Library, 11 have read it and 29 want to.
“After Stenwold picked up the telescope for the ninth time, Marius said, 'You will know from the sound.'”
ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.
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