The Anvil of the World (Lord Ermenwyr #1)
The Anvil of the World (Lord Ermenwyr #1)
Author: Kage Baker
Desc: Kage Baker's stories and novels of the mysterious organization that controls time travel The Company have made her famous in SF. So has her talent for clever dialogue and pointed social commentary with a light touch. The Anvil of the World is her first fantasy novel a journey across a fantastic landscape filled with bizarre creatures human and otherwise. It is the tale of Smith of the large extended family of Smiths of the Children of the Sun. They are a race given to blood feuds and Smith was formerly an extremely successful assassin. Now he has wearied of his work and is trying to retire in another country to live an honest life in obscurity in spite of all those who have sworn to kill him. His problems begin when he agrees to be the master of a caravan from the inland city of Troon to the seaside city of Salesh. The caravan is dogged with murder magic and the brooding image of the Master of the Mountain a powerful demon looking down from his mountain kingdom upon the greenlands and the travelers passing below. In Salesh Smith becomes an innkeeper but on the journey he befriended the young Lord Ermenwyr a decadent demonic half-breed. Each time Ermenwyr turns up he brings new trouble with him. The outgrowth of stories Baker has been writing since childhood as engaging as Tolkien and yet nothing like him Smith's adventure is certainly the only fantasy on record with a white-uniformed nurse gourmet cuisine one hundred and forty-four glass butterflies and a steamboat. This is a book filled with intrigue romance sudden violence and moments of emotional impact a cast of charming characters and echoes of the fantasy tradition from Lord Dunsany and Fritz Leiber to Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny.