Book description
Vali Hallsdottir has returned to her home world of Muspell to discover
that her nation is in chaos, preparing to face invasion from the
neighbouring country of Darkland. When her friend and mentor Idhunn is
brutally murdered and her spine removed and stolen, Vali falls under
suspicion and is held by the army of the Morrighanu, but released by a
mysterious force.
Having nowhere else to run, she travels across the northern ice field
to the hostile glacier territory of Darkland, where she meets an old
enemy, Thorn Eld, a member of the elite security force known as the
vitki. Eld tells her that Darkland has spawned a rogue assassin, a
female vitki killer known as Skinning Knife and despite their
differences Vali and Eld decide to join forces and track down the
vitki’s most lethal weapon. Together they are facing some dangerous
questions about the nature of Skinning Knife herself, and her impact on
their world . . .and they are not the only ones who are desperate to
discover the assassin’s whereabouts . . .
‘Confirmation, if any were really needed, that Williams is one of the
most original and distinctive voices in British SF’ SFX
Liz Williams is the daughter of a stage magician and a gothic
novelist, and currently lives in Glastonbury. She received a PhD in
Philosophy of Science from Cambridge, and her subsequent career has
ranged from reading tarot cards on Brighton's Palace Pier to teaching in
central Asia.
