Days of Shattered Faith
Shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Series 2025
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4.8 • 26 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Welcome to Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters, capital of Usmai, greatest of the Successor States, inheritor to the necromantic dominion that was the Moeribandi Empire and tomorrow's frontline in the Palleseen's relentless march to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world.
Loret is fresh off the boat, and just in time.
As Cohort-Invigilator of Correct Appreciation, Outreach department, she's here as aide to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. And Sage-Invigilator Angilly – Gil to her friends – needs a second in the spectacularly illegal, culturally offensive and diplomatically inadvisable duel she must fight at midnight.
Outreach, that part of the Pal machine that has to work within the imperfection of the rest of the world, has a lot of room for the illegal, the unconventional, the unorthodox. But just how much unorthodoxy can Gil and Loret get away with?
As a succession crisis looms, as a long-forgotten feat of necromantic engineering nears fruition, as pirate kings, lizard armies and demons gather, as old gods wane and new gods wax, sooner or later Gil and Loret will have to settle their ledger.
Just as well they are both very, very good with a blade…
Also in the TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS series:
CITY OF LAST CHANCES
HOUSE OF OPEN WOUNDS
LIVES OF BITTER RAIN
DAYS OF SHATTERED FAITH
PRETENDERS TO THE THONE OF GOD
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Enhancing a taut political thriller with magical elements—including a necromantic conspiracy and a giant frog god—Hugo Award winner Tchaikovsky's brilliant third Tyrant Philosophers fantasy again explores the tension between secular orthodoxy and religious fervor. Following the events of 2023's House of Open Wounds, the Palleseen nation attempts to bring its rigid rationality to the city of Alkhalend, Jewel of the Waters and capital of Usmai, the largest successor state of the death-worshipping Moeribandi Empire. The Palleseen resident ambassador, Sage-Invigilator Angilly, has started an unapproved romantic relationship with Usmai's heir apparent, Dekamran. When Dekamran's father, the Alkhand, disappears into a religious cult, Dekamran and his siblings scramble to either take control of or escape the suddenly dangerous city. Angilly must perform the delicate balancing act of supporting Dekamran as Palleseen's indebted ally while not exposing herself to charges of theological corruption. Crowding the city streets with free-range demons, interdimensional refugees, and giant war beasts, Tchaikovsky succeeds in turning Alkhalend into a stage that showcases the entanglement of the personal and the political in ways both touching and tragic. It's an impressive feat.
