The Thirteenth Man takes place about 300 years before A Choice of Treasons in the interstellar
kingdom known as the Realm, and before the formation of the Lunan
Empire. King Lucius is a monarch with visions of empire, but he's also a fool who's bankrupted the royal treasury with failed little wars in his attempts at conquest. With a weak king on the throne, the Realm is now
ruled more by the nine dukes on the Ducal Council.
Charlie Cass
is the unacknowledged, bastard son of Cesare, Duke de Maris, one of the
most powerful of the nine Dukes. Returning after five years in a squalid POW camp, Charlie finds that little has changed. The nine Dukes are
conspiring against Lucius and each other. Lucius wants to annex one of
the Independent States, another ill-advised attempt at conquest and a
nice prelude to his next war. But to finance his aggressions he's now
plotting with the Syndonese, Charlie's old enemies. When the Syndonese
double-cross them all and take control of the Realm, leaving Lucius on
the throne as a puppet, a free-for-all interstellar war erupts between
the Realm, the Independent States and the Republic of Syndon. To save
himself Charlie is forced to assume the mantle of the thirteenth Duke de Lunis, who, according to legend, is destined for the headsman's ax. But if he can survive the headsman, that same legend states that all may
fall before the Thirteenth Man.
