In this Fantasyland, there's a standoff between unpleasant empires run along police-state lines, with "paladins" as heavy enforcers, brutal suppression of awkward truths, and zero human rights for the people in the street. One lunatic prince forever flees Death in a magic floating palace that wanders through his realm, uncaringly crushing farmhouses and orchards that get in the way. All this spawns a highly organised Resistance crossing imperial borders, whose long-term plans--most unusually--do not involve armed uprising. Meanwhile, far away, a warlord called Zerreiss is gobbling up townships, promising freedom, and seems to have the advantage of some mysterious affinity with this world's (literal) underground channels of magic.

Nicholls assembles a motley crew of misfits: a woman enforcer disgraced for insisting on the truth, a warrior from a despised race who's afflicted with an odd blessing-cum-curse, a wizard's apprentice whose master was murdered by paladins and who proves to have a very special talent, an unwilling prostitute on the run, and a famous tenor singer. All end up together in the Resistance, where they're drawn into highly illegal schemes to raise money and to sabotage the imperial record system with its dossiers on known dissidents. On the other side, the state has adapted magical glamours into tools of surveillance, oppression and torment, while even the rebel outfit is plagued with embedded spies.

Against this interesting background, there are numerous set-pieces of fast-paced but routine fantasy action: many sword fights, daring assaults on fortified houses, raids and rescues, Indiana Jones-style booby traps, and--something that now seems to be contractually required in commercial fantasy--a desperate flight through stinking sewers. This is all good fun, though, and the pages turn fast. --David Langford

Synopsis
Powerful new epic fantasy trilogy from Stan Nicholls, the British author of the internationally acclaimed ORCS series. The empires of Rintarah and Gath Tampoor are squared against each other, each continually spying for weaknesses in the other. In the middle huddles the small island state of Bhealfa, ruled by a demented Prince who is obsessed with the idea that he can outrun death. Everywhere, magic underpins the social order. Different classes enjoy different qualities of magic; from meagre charms for the destitute, to grand conjurations impossible to distinguish from reality for the rich. But the most skilful and expensive spells are kept by the authorities and used to control the entire population. Reeth Caldason is among the last of his kind. His people, the Qalochians, a race of natural warriors, were brutally massacred decades ago. Reeth is cursed with immortality, forced to wander the world, seeking revenge for his tribe and a cure for his magical affliction. Under the floating Palace of the mad Prince of Bhealfa he comes across other outlaws and is drawn into the Resistance movement, assisting those who have suffered under the dictatorships of the two massive empires.

Reeth is promised that in return for his help, the underground society will help him find a cure for his affliction. But the political situation and the magic nature of the world are inextricably connected. Bring one down and the other will be destroyed -- the world will change forever and Reeth's curse will never be lifted.