The city of Astreiant is full of magic, danger and bureaucracy, and never moreso than when something or someone is making guild apprentices disappear without a trace. Philip Eslingen has just been discharged from his mercenary company and as a Leaguer and a stranger, makes an ideal suspect. Fortunately for him, Pointsman Nicolas Rathe from the Point of Hopes station doesn't agree, but he knows the only way to prove that is to find the missing children and the real culprits. Together they must follow a twisted trail of deceit and magic in a city on the brink of exploding into violence. If they can't learn to work together, the results could be catastrophic, even fatal. And if they can't trust each other, the price could be higher than either of them realize.
Book 1 of the Astreiant Series
0 of 1 copy available
-
Creators
-
Series
-
Publisher
-
Release date
June 27, 2024 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9798986754390
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9798986754390
- File size: 811 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
December 4, 1995
This new collaborative effort by Scott and Barnett, like their first (The Armor of Light), is a well-researched medieval fantasy told in a literate and urbane mannerist style. Rathe-a handsome, young, incorruptible pointsman (basically, a police detective)-is given the nearly impossible task of trying to discover why the children of the town of Point of Hopes are being spirited away in droves, and where they are being taken. For assistance, he enlists the aid of both an out-of-work soldier, Phillip Eslinger, and the necromancer Istre b'Estorr. Astrology, necromancy, greed and power struggles all play major roles as Rathe attempts to find the children before a major astrological brings about a foretold catastrophe. Set in an alternative Middle Ages where the authors' intricate world-building only occasionally overshadows their plotting, this novel, though not fast-paced, offers intriguing looks at guild interrelationships, the uses of hand-cranked printing presses and medieval attitudes toward magic. It also offers considerable delight to those who enjoy intellectual puzzles of the fantastic kind.
-