Staff Pick
This book should not be as good as it is. It wanders. It's lengthy. The vast majority of it is inside Kip's head, going over and over what he's feeling and what he's thinking at any given moment. But it's so good.
This is the most emotionally well-paced and cathartic book I've ever read. There were chapters where I had to reread sentences, paragraphs, pages over and over because I could not process the emotional weight fast enough. I wanted to sit and dwell in those words, in those scenes, because nothing I've ever read has made me feel so deeply as this has.
If you've read The Hands of the Emperor, you know that this is a different kind of epic fantasy. And it's so refreshing to read something good about characters who are good and to see them make their choices and root for them the whole way. Recommended By Anna B., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Cliopher Mdang has been appointed Viceroy of Zunidh by his beloved Radiancy, the Last Emperor, who has now left him behind in the Palace to safeguard the world during his absence on a quest to find an appropriately magical heir. When he returns, he will abdicate, and Cliopher will at last retire, satisfied with having achieved most of his life's political goals--even if his long-suppressed personal dreams are starting to bubble up.
(Surely he used to have hobbies besides running the government?)
All he has to do is wait patiently for his lord's return... until adventure quite literally hits him from behind, and what was once safely hypothetical becomes intensely real.
Cliopher has always followed the stars of his chosen course: the epic oral histories of his people, the poetry of the rebel poet Fitzroy Angursell, decades of devotion and service to his Radiancy... They were enough to change the world. But are they enough to guide Cliopher home?
The sequel to The Hands of the Emperor.