In the southernmost tip of the island kingdom of Antyre, a carriage set a rapid pace through the city streets of Murne. The horse-and-four racketed down the broken cobblestone street, shuddering and jolting on the uneven surface. Mid-morning sunlight lanced off the blue-lacquered carriage, lighting it like a jewel in a tarnished crown. On either side, narrow houses listed and shed fragments of their facades, littering the streets below with rubble. Once this had been a prosperous merchant neighborhood, the most common thoroughfare between the palace and the sea--before a girl's prayer had been heard by black-winged Ani, that treacherous god of love and vengeance. Read more

From Publishers Weekly-- "... a darkly original world of doubted gods and declining civilization. Robins is a fantasist with a future." Read more

Maledicte lived and Maledicte died

And only at his birth did anybody cry.

How many people did he kill?

One, two, three . . .

—Children’s skipping song

Seething with decadent appetites unchecked by law or gods, the court of Antyre is ruled by the last of a dissolute aristocracy.  Read more