Publisher, Tantor Media (January 2009)

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Epic fantasy is worked over in classic Richard K. Morgan style, producing this unique combination of noir themes and savage action involving characters you wouldn't want to meet but will love to follow.

"Morgan's storytelling talent and his atmospheric, hard-hitting prose make this a strong addition to mature fantasy collections." ---Library Journal

Ringil, the hero of the bloody slaughter at Gallows Gap, is a legend to all who don't know him and a twisted degenerate to those that do. A veteran of the wars against the lizards, he makes a living from telling credulous travelers of his exploits. Until one day he is pulled away from his life and into the depths of the Empire's slave trade, where he will discover a secret infinitely more frightening than the trade in lives.

Archeth—pragmatist, cynic, engineer, and the last of her race—is called from her work at the whim of the most powerful man in the Empire and sent to its farthest reaches to investigate a demonic incursion against the Empire's borders.

Egar Dragonbane, steppe-nomad and one-time fighter for the Empire, finds himself entangled in a small-town battle between common sense and religious fervor. But out in the wider world there is something on the move far more alien than any of his tribe's petty gods.

Anti-social, anti-heroic, and decidedly irritated, all three of them are about to be sent unwillingly forth into a vicious, vigorous, and thoroughly unsuspecting fantasy world—called upon by an Empire that owes them everything and gave them nothing.

About the Author: Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that also won the Philip K. Dick Award. Morgan sold the movie rights for Altered Carbon to Joel Silver and Warner Bros. His third book, Market Forces, has also been sold to Warner Bros. He lives in Scotland.

About the Performer: A British actor and passionate audiobook narrator, Simon Vance has earned five Earphone Awards from AudioFile magazine and has been an Audie finalist for three successive years since 2001. He has recorded over 200 audiobooks, including the critically acclaimed Treasure Island, Shackleton's Way, and The Piano Tuner He has performed as an actor in the San Francisco Bay Area and appeared in the TV series Nash Bridges.