All is not well in the Letherii Empire.
Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chancellor, while the Letherii secret police conduct a campaign of terror against its own people. The Errant, once a farseeing god, is suddenly blind to the future. Conspiracies seethe throughout the palace, as the empire - driven by the corrupt and self-interested - edges ever-closer to all-out war with the neighbouring kingdoms.
And then there's the great Edur fleet that draws ever closer - a force that includes Karsa Orlong and Icarium Lifestealer - each destined to cross blades with the emperor himself. That yet more blood is to be spilled is inevitable . . .
Against this backdrop, a band of fugitives seek a way out of the empire. Amongst is Fear Sengar who is searching for the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye. His hope is that it might help halt the Tiste Edur and so save his brother, the emperor. But travelling with them is Scabandari's most ancient foe: Silchas Ruin, brother of Anomander Rake. Ruin's motives are anything but certain. The wounds he carries on his back, made by the blades of Scabandari, are still fresh.
Fate decrees that there is to be a reckoning, for such bloodshed cannot go unanswered - and it will be a reckoning on an unimaginable scale . . .

Steven Erikson is a New York Times bestselling author renown for writing The Malazan Book of the Fallen, a ten-volume series that has sold millions of copies worldwide and is recognized as number two of the top 10 fantasy books by Fantasy Book Review and one of 30 best fantasy series of all time by Paste Magazine. He is a trained archaeologist and anthropologist who has published over twenty books, most of which explore notions of privilege, power hierarchies, and the rise and fall of civilizations, or take the piss out of the same. Erikson has been nominated for the Locus Award four times and the World Fantasy Award twice. His next novel Rejoice, a Knife to the Heart, is an SF First Contact story, due out in October, 2018. He lives in Victoria, B.C. with his lovely wife Clare.

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The most significant work of epic fantasy since Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles of Thomas Covenant—SF SITE

Extraordinarily enjoyable...Erikson is a master of lost and forgotten epochs, a weaver of ancient epics—SALON.COM

This is true myth in the making, a drawing upon fantasy to recreate histories and legends as rich as any found within our culture—INTERZONE

This masterwork of imagination may be the high watermark of epic fantasy—GLEN COOK, author of The Black Company series

Gripping, fast-moving, delightfully dark...Erikson brings a punchy, mesmerizing writing style into the genre of epic fantasy—ELIZABETH HAYDON