Tetrarch: A Tale of the Three Worlds | Ian Irvine
SANTHENAR IS ON ITS KNEES. The war with the alien lyrinx drags on, and humanity is losing it, but there is worse to come. The Aachim have invaded with an irresistible force - a fleet of battle constructs. Cursing humanity for the loss of Aachan and his own clan, the embittered Aachim leader, Vithis, demands half the world in reparation. The council is in no position to resist. But even if they agree to his demands, can anything satisfy his thirst for vengeance? Tiaan is in despair. Her life lies in ruins, and now she is being hunted through the abandoned city of Tirthrax by an implacable Nish, who blames her for the attack. The future of the world rests in the hands of three flawed people: Tiaan, whose geomancy holds the key to the power that can save or destroy them; Nish, who has sworn to bring her to justice; and Irisis, whose great talents are hidden even from herself. 'Ian Irvine is arguably the most inventive fantasy author to emerge in recent years. Geomancer succeeds in being a page-turner of the highest order ... Irvine can now consider himself comfortably ranked next to the works of Robert Jordan and David Eddings and, more appropriately, the mighty Anne McCaffrey. Formidable!' SFX (UK) 'Irvine's strength here is that he makes us care not only about the idealistic, wet, misguidedly ruthless Tiaan, but also about the occasionally vicious and manipulative Irisis and Nish, who are not merely villains, but products of their unpleasant world somewhat redeemed by their growing regard for each other. This is, attractively, grimmer and grittier than most fantasy novels with a real sense of industrial squalor and a society in paranoid melt-down-and with a neatly unpleasant set of twists at the end.' Roz Kaveney, Amazon.uk 'Ian Irvine has produced one of those rarities in the fantasy genre, and that is a unique, well-thought-out world coupled with a well-written storyline. A gripping read.' Enigma (UK) 'Readers of Eddings, Goodkind and Jordan will lap this one up.' Starlog (UK) 'Irvine mixes in plenty of interesting characters of uncertain moral fibre to create a compelling adventure in a landscape full of wonders.' Locus. 'Irvine imagines the epic landscape through which the characters move in persuasive detail and describes it powerfully. The misery of the manufactory's oppressed children and fearful adults is effectively communicated and elaborated. Driven by fear and inadequacy ... they cheat, lie and betray others in the cause of their own ambition, but are nonetheless sympathetically portrayed.' Australian Book Review.