Author(s): Stella Gemmell

Fantasy

Deep within the rotting bowels of The City, in its rank catacombs, crumbling sewers and ancient tunnels, society's dregs and dispossessed - and those who are fleeing punishment or who simply want to disappear - struggle to survive. Above ground, the streets and markets teem as people go about their daily lives, and the palaces of the privileged gleam in the sunlight. All seems well. But in truth, the City teeters on the brink of disaster. It is place of cruelty and fear, where the rule of its seemingly immortal and quite possibly insane ruler has brought his dominion to its knees through waging almost constant war over hundreds of years. Amongst the outcasts living beneath are a brother and sister with no memory of their past and an old man who wishes to keep his secret. Disaster will separate them but years later, the memory of a tattooed corpse and something akin to fate will reunite them as players in a monumental conspiracy to liberate their world...Combining inspired world-building, complex characters in whose lives the reader becomes wholly involved, morally ambiguous action and thrilling battle scenes, this vibrant, multi-layered novel is a stunning achievement and places its author at the very front rank of fantasy fiction.