Book description
The great adventure had ended happily. The good folk of Krasnegar
discovered that a beautiful princess could, indeed, succeed her royal
father and rule in her own right, and rule very well, too. And when
Queen Inos married Rap, the former stableboy, he turned out to be a very
good king. He never admitted that he was a sorcerer, and everyone knew
that Rap was a Man of His Word, so that was all right. The years passed.
Rap and Inos raised a family, prospering in their remote little kingdom.
But trouble was brewing in the great world outside. The aged Imperor
grew ever more erratic, more tyrannical. His grandson Shandie, the boy
Rap had befriended, was now a great soldier, struggling to suppress
ever-growing upheaval in the borderlands while he waited to inherit the
throne. Strange prophecies of upheaval and disaster spread. When the
rumors reached even to Krasnegar, Rap scoffed at them as
superstition--until one night a god appeared and confirmed that the
truth was likely to be far worse. On his travels long ago, Rap himself
had made a terrible blunder. Because of that, the world of Pandemia was
now poised on the brink of utter disaster. The last thing Rap wanted was
another adventure, and that might be the last thing he would ever get.
Dave Duncan, born in Scotland in 1933, is a Canadian citizen. He
received his diploma from Dundee High School and got his college
education at the University of Saint Andrews. He moved to Canada in
1955, where he still lives with his wife. He has three grown children
and four grandchildren. He spent thirty years as a petroleum geologist.
He has had dozens of fantasy and science fiction novels published, among
them A ROSE-RED CITY, MAGIC CASEMENT and THE REAVER ROAD, as well as a
highly praised historical novel, DAUGHTER OF TROY, published, for
commercial reasons, under the pseudonym Sarah B. Franklin. He also
published the "Longdirk" series of novels, DEMON SWORD, DEMON
KNIGHT and DEMON RIDER, under the name Ken Hood. His website is
DaveDuncan. com. In the Fall of 2007, Duncan's 2006 novel, CHILDREN OF
CHAOS, published by Tor Books, was nominated for both the Prix Aurora
Award and the Endeavour Award.
