Farlander

An aging assassin and his apprentice are given orders that drag them into a deadly conflict in this steampunk adventure series debut.

"Completely absorbing. Once I was into it, I just couldn't put it down." —Glen Cook, author of the Black Company novels

The Heart of the World is a land in strife. For fifty years the Holy Empire of Mann, an empire and religion born from a nihilistic urban cult, has been conquering nation after nation. Their leader, Holy Matriarch Sasheen, ruthlessly maintains control through her Diplomats, priests trained as subtle predators.

Ash is a member of an elite group of assassins, the Roshun, who offer protection through the threat of vendetta. Forced by his ailing health to take on an apprentice, he chooses Nico, a young man living in the besieged city of Bar-Khos. At the time, Nico is hungry, desperate, and alone in a city that finds itself teetering on the brink.

When the Holy Matriarch's son deliberately murders a woman under the protection of the Roshun; he forces the sect to seek his life in retribution. As Ash and his young apprentice set out to fulfill the Roshun orders, their journey takes them into the heart of the conflict between the Empire and the Free Ports . . . into bloodshed and death.

"Something special. . . . Buchanan writes vividly and well, and the story grips from the astonishing opening sequence to the unexpected conclusion." —The Times (UK)

"A fast-moving novel that, for all its fantasy elements, explosively addresses the universal questions facing any society." —L. E. Modesitt, Kr., New York Times–bestselling author of Imager's Intrigue