![The Emperor's Knife](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
![The Emperor's Knife](/assets/artwork/1x1-42817eea7ade52607a760cbee00d1495.gif)
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The Emperor's Knife
Tower and Knife Book I
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
Only a forgotten prince and a girl from the grasslands can stop the Patttern Master in this 'compelling and wholly convincing fantasy' (Ben Aaronovitch, author of The Rivers of London). Written under a pseudonym by a Sunday Times bestselling author and a critically acclaimed writer, this 'riveting and intense novel' (Publishers Weekly) is perfect for fans of Mark Lawrence and Brandon Sanderson.
There is a cancer at the heart of the mighty Cerani empire: a plague that first marks its victims, then covers their skin in geometric patterns until they die in agony - or are subsumed, their bodies now in thrall to the Pattern Master. Emperor Beyon's law is that any hint of the pattern means death, before they become another puppet for the sorcerer to use for his evil ends - to see the Cerani Empire reduced to dust and whispers.
No one but his mother knows the emperor himself is infected, and so she looks to her only other living son, Prince Sarmin, locked in a tower since Beyon ascended the throne. A bride is chosen, a girl from the grasslands quite unused to the politics and intrigue of the imperial court - but she is strong-willed and determined, and she once saw a path in a pattern in the waving grasses: a path that might just save them all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Williams's riveting and intense debut is driven as much by the emotional scars of a ruthless court as by the court's intrigues. The Empire is haunted by a mysterious, incurable curse: soon after the strange markings of the Pattern appear on people's bodies, they either die or become the murderous puppets of an unseen force. When heir-less Emperor Beyon becomes Patterned, his mother and the vizier plot to use his brother, Prince Sarmin, to their own ends. Sarmin, however, is embittered by a lifetime spent hidden in a luxurious prison an emperor is allowed no surviving brothers and joins forces with his fianc e, Mesema, a nomad chief's daughter, to put an end to royal assassinations. Their plans are then derailed by the discovery of a person manipulating the horrifying Pattern, more dangerous than any coup. Compelling characterizations will keep fans of grim fantasy entirely enthralled.