Book Preview The Bone Forest at night is a dangerous place to be. The ground is marshy, spread with silent pools of water waiting to catch the steps of the unwary. A permanent fog shrouds the air in the colder months; in winter little can be seen of the landscape save the twisted trees looming … Read more
Book Preview The eve before Winter Solstice arrived; heralded, as ever, by a flurry of snow and a bone-aching chill. Konrad welcomed the joys of the season by going to bed straight after dinner — alone. He took a book, three hot bricks and a glass (or two) of brandy with him, a combination which … Read more
Book Preview Master, said Ootapi one rainy afternoon. You have been too long idle, and it sours your temper. You require an occupation. ‘Quite,’ said Konrad, with a curl of his lip. ‘Not nearly enough people are being murdered. It is highly inconvenient of everybody to keep breathing in this detestably ceaseless fashion.’ Eetapi drifted … Read more
Book Preview any essential dependence of the material world on thought and volition. Theologians think it a pretty air-castle to talk of the spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, of a city or a contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid ground of historical evidence ; and even the poets … Read more
Book Preview JARAN NAMES HAVE BEEN transliterated into their Earth equivalencies. For instance, U’rhyinhias (pronounced You-rye-EEN-yas) has been simplified into Yurinya (pronounced You-RHEEN-ya or YOU-rhee). This has proved easier on the eye for those inexperienced in Xenolinguistics, as well as lending a certain flavor to the jaran culture because of this superficial similarity to a … Read more
Book Preview PROLOGUE BEYOND Gent, moving into the east toward the marchlands, the king’s progress journeyed slowly because of the immense damage caused by the great winds of autumn. Along the roads and in every village they passed through the regnant heard the same desperate complaints: the farmers dared not plant because frost kept coming … Read more
Book Preview FEATHER Cloak was fertile, the only pregnant woman left among her people. Indeed, she was the only woman living who had quickened more than once. Therefore, she presided over the council of tribes because she had power the others did not possess, power that had been draining from the land during their exile. … Read more
Book Preview PROLOUGE SHE dreamed. In the vault of heaven spin wheels of gold, winking and dazzling. The thrum of their turning births a wind that spills throughout creation, so hot and wet that it becomes a haze. This mist clears to reveal the tomb of the Emperor Taillefer, his carved effigy atop a marble … Read more
Book Preview KATE ELLIOT Child of Flame PROLOGUE OFF to the southeast, thunder rolled on and on. But in the broad ditch where three youths and two gravely injured soldiers had taken refuge from the battle, the rain had, mercifully, slackened. A wind out of the … Read more
Book Preview KATE ELLIOT **VOLUME Three of CROWN OF STARS** The Burning Stone PROLOGUE HE had ran this far without being caught, but he knew his Quman master still followed him. Convulsive shudders shook him where he huddled in the … Read more
Book Preview KATE ELLIOT **VOLUME Two of CROWN OF STARS** PRINCE OF DOGS PROLOGUE ALL spring they managed to stay alive by hiding in the abandoned tannery quarter, coming out only at night to scrounge for food. After a … Read more
Book Preview My thanks to Katharine Kerr for supplying me with a title when all seemed lost; to my husband, Jay Silverstein, for his continued support while he has himself been engaged in a great enterprise; to the Reverend Jeanne Reames Zimmerman, O.S.L., for her immense aid with matters classical and linguistic; to my sister, … Read more
Book Preview Huldeel: a villiage chief Shadow: a mythical being Stranger: a magician of some kind Stuart Casey, aka Case: a changed man Anfen: former First Captain of the castle’s army Doon: Faul’s nephew, killed by Kiown Eric: a journalist (and fan of Superman comics) who went through the door Far Gaze: a folk magician … Read more
Book Preview Shadow: a mythical being Stranger: a magician of some kind Stuart Casey, aka Case: a changed man Anfen: former First Captain of the castle’s army Doon: Faul’s nephew, killed by Kiown Eric: a journalist (and fan of Superman comics) who went through the door Far Gaze: a folk magician Lalie: an Inferno cultist … Read more
Book Preview Eric Albright: a journalist who discovered the door Stuart Casey, AKA Case: a homeless drunk Anfen: former First Captain of the castle’s army Doon: a half-giant in Anfen’s band Far Gaze: a powerful folk-magician Kiown: one of Anfen’s band Loup: one of Anfen’s band, also a folk-magician Lalie: an Inferno cultist Sharfy: one … Read more
Book Preview I hadn’t killed anyone in almost four years. But all good things come to an end, eventually. It was good to be living in Tokyo again. The face of the city had changed, as it continuously does, and the great Touhoku quake and tsunami continued to make their presence known in the form … Read more
Book Preview G. P. PUTNAM’S SONSPublishers Since 1838Published by the Penguin GroupPenguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, … Read more
Book Preview I‘ve never liked doing a job in a new place. You don’t know how to get in and out undetected, you don’t know what tools you’ll need to access the target, you don’t know where you’ll stick out and where you’ll be able to fade into the background or disappear in a crowd. … Read more