Award-winning author Simon Morden joins Gollancz with a stunning SF quest across a vast world that mirrors every London ever built.
Instead of fire, there was water.
A wave slapped through the open doorway, and a gust of wind blew into the smoke-filled corridor, dragging a spiral of soot outwards and away.
MARY. One slip away from prison, fighting to build herself a future from nothing.
DALIP. The gentle son of a warrior tradition. A young man who must fight for independence from his family.
STANISLAV. A fierce and capable man carrying the wounds of a brutal war.
They left London in flames for a place where everything was different. A place that can uncover your secrets.
A place haunted by a man called Crows . . .
A small group of commuters and tube workers witness a fiery apocalypse overtaking London. They make their escape through a service tunnel. Reaching a door they step through...and find themselves on a wild shore backed by cliffs and rolling grassland. The way back is blocked. Making their way inland they meet a man dressed in a wolf's cloak and with wolves by his side. He speaks English and has heard of a place called London - other people have arrived here down the ages - all escaping from a London that is burning. None of them have returned. Except one - who travels between the two worlds at will. The group begin a quest to find this one survivor; the one who holds the key to their return and to the safety of London.
And as they travel this world, meeting mythical and legendary creatures,split between North and South by a mighty river and bordered by The White City and The Crystal Palace they realise they are in a world defined by all the London's there have ever been.
Reminiscent of Michael Moorcock and Julian May this is a grand and sweeping science fantasy built on the ideas, the legends, the memories of every London there has ever been.
The story is patient, and every sequence is both a physical battle and philosophical teaching that merge with well-paced hooks.
