Book description
In another world, somewhere in space and time, two countries-Bellogard
and Chorny-are locked in perpetual war, conducted by magic. Each of the
main members of the two countries' courts-king, queen, prince, bishop,
knight and squire-has their own form of magic, and special ways of
moving magically. A war may continue for centuries, until one side
succeeds in killing the other side's king, at which point the whole
world vanishes, only to reappear and have the cycle begin again. . .
Pedino is a young Bellogardian who becomes the queen's squire and, as
part of his training, is sent into a seedier part of the city to uncover
a Chornian spy. During his adventures he meets and falls in love with a
whore, Sara, who turns out to be a Chornian bishop's squire. Pedino
succeeds in killing the other Chornian bishop-a remarkable achievement
for a mere squire; but in the manoeuvres which follow Chorny proves to
have outwitted its rival, and Pedino's whole world is threatened with
extinction. There have been many stories modelled on chess games, but
none so ingenious and enjoyable as Ian Watson's latest novel. And, as
one would expect from Watson, the story of Bellogard and Chorny is only
the beginning. When Pedino and Sara manage to escape the destruction of
their universe, they find themselves in a series of even more bizarre
worlds operating under still stranger rules, as they seek to discover
the purpose of their existence, and the meaning of their universe.
Queenmagic, Kingmagic is Ian Watson in sparkling, exuberant form. Ian
Watson (1943 - ) Ian Watson was born in England in 1943 and graduated
from Balliol College, Oxford, with a first class Honours degree in
English Literature. He lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and
Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish SF with "Roof Garden
Under Saturn" for the influential New Worlds magazine in 1969. He
became a full-time writer in 1976, following the success of his debut
novel The Embedding. His work has been frequently shortlisted for the
Hugo and Nebula Awards and he has won the BSFA Award twice. From 1990 to
1991 he worked full-time with Stanley Kubrick on story development for
the movie A. I. Artificial Intelligence, directed after Kubrick's death
by Steven Spielberg; for which he is acknowledged in the credits for
Screen Story. Ian Watson lives in Northamptonshire, England.
