It is said that Hood, Lord of Death, gathered unto himself a host of
gods, in a place beyond the reach of mortals. It is said that Hood
waits at the end of every plot, every scheme, each grandiose ambition.
But this time it is different. This time he’s there at the beginning…
Darujhistan
swelters in the summer heat and seethes with dire portents, unsettling
rumours and insidious whispers. Strangers have arrived, a murderer is
at work, and past tyrannies might be reawakening. The retired
Bridgeburners of K’rul’s Bar have been singled out by the city's
assassins with deadly consequences, and a small, rotund,
red-waistcoat-clad man, while dismayed by his expanding girth, knows
that this is the very least of his worries. For somewhere in the
distance can be heard the baying of hounds.
And far away in
Black Coral, the Tiste Andii rule with seeming indifference. At a
massive barrow outside the city, thousands gather – adherents to the
cult of the Redeemer, a once-mortal man whose virtue and honour seem
defenceless against the twisted ambitions of his followers.
So, as
Hood stands at the beginning of a conspiracy that will shake the
cosmos, at its end, there waits another. For Anomander Rake, Son of
Darkness, the time has come to right an ancient and terrible wrong…
With this epic new chapter, Steven Erikson’s awesome fantasy adventure enters its final, climactic stages.
“Truly epic in scope, Erikson has no peer when it comes to action and
imagination, and joins the ranks of Tolkien and Donaldson in his mythic
vision and perhaps then goes one better.” – SF Site