Quillifer
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4.4 • 37 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
“Walter Jon Williams is always fun, but this may be his best yet, a delight from start to finish, witty, colorful, exciting and amusing by turns, exquisitely written.” —George R. R. Martin
From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Walter Jon Williams comes an adventurous epic fantasy about a man who is forced to leave his comfortable life and find his fortune among goddesses, pirates, war, and dragons.
Rogue. Joker. Lover. Reluctant soldier.
Quillifer is a young man, serially in love and studying law, when a family tragedy throws him into the world to seek his fortune. A charmer rather than a fighter, he soon finds himself embroiled with a bandit gang, caught up in vicious court intrigues, and the plaything of an angry, beautiful, and very jealous goddess. While he struggles to establish himself in the capital, the country finds itself pitched into a civil war, and Quillifer, a unwilling soldier at best, finds himself caught up in the action, and able to tip the scales of fortune.
Quillifer, with its engaging hero and his exploits with lovers, brawlers, warriors, and privateers, is a book that bursts with life. It’s the first volume in a new epic fantasy by bestselling and award-winning author Walter Jon Williams.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sprawling, lively episodic adventure, Williams (Angel Station) returns to his swashbuckling historical fantasy roots while exploring new territory. Eighteen-year-old Quillifer, a butcher's son and legal apprentice, lives a life of ease and pleasure in the city of Ethlebight, in the fictional realm of Duisland. When Ethlebight is sacked by a foreign fleet and his family is killed, Quillifer embarks on a journey that encompasses bandits, illicit affairs, royal intrigue, and civil war. The primary magical element is a (sometimes frustratingly) capricious nymph who frees Quillifer from captivity. Quillifer's wit and cleverness get him into almost as much trouble as they get him out of, but well-placed friends and plenty of good luck serve him well. The setting often feels more like a thinly disguised version of medieval Europe than a truly original world, but Williams excels at setting up conflicts and other entanglements, skillfully maneuvering Quillifer across the landscape and into increasingly engrossing situations.
