The Stone in the Skull
Hugo Award–winning author Elizabeth Bear returns to the critically acclaimed, epic fantasy world of The Eternal Sky with a brand-new trilogy
This first volume of a new Eternal Sky trilogy takes readers over the dangerous mountain passes of the Steles of the Sky and south, into the Lotus Kingdoms.
The Gage is a brass automaton created by a wizard of Messaline around the core of a human being. His wizard is long dead, and he works as a mercenary. He carries a message from the most powerful sorcerer of Messaline to the Rajni of the Lotus Kingdom. With him is the Dead Man, a bitter survivor of the bodyguard of the deposed Uthman Caliphate, protecting the message and the Gage. They are friends, of a peculiar sort.
They are walking into a dynastic war between the rulers of the shattered bits of a once great Empire.
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Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear is an author whose writing navigates the spaces where fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction intertwine, creating worlds as complex and varied as the human condition itself. With a background deeply rooted in both science and the arts, her stories weave together elements of mythology, speculative thought, and philosophical exploration. Her ability to craft intricate worlds and layered narratives has earned her a devoted following among fans of thoughtful, boundary-pushing speculative fiction.
The Lotus Kingdoms
Elizabeth Bear expands the world of her Eternal Sky trilogy beyond the Steles of the Sky into the southern Lotus Kingdoms. The Gage is an automaton built around a human heart, created by a long-dead Wizard of Messaline. His purpose now is to carry a message to the Rajni of one of those Lotus Kingdoms. With him travels a Dead Man, once the bodyguard of the ruler of the Uthman Caliphate, now fallen. The Dead Man is now a nameless mercenary. But the Lotus Kingdoms are soon to be at war with each other, and Wizardly messages are seldom what they seem to be on the surface.
The Lotus Kingdoms consists of three books and considered as a complete series. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Main series The Eternal Sky
