Duel of Sorcery

A young warrior woman, Serroi fights to keep dark magic from destroying her world, in the first book of Jo Clayton's acclaimed Duel of Sorcery fantasy trilogy.   Serroi is unique in her world, and was nearly put to death in infancy as a result. A green-skinned "misborn," small in stature with an unnatural connection to the natural world, she was nonetheless chosen and exceptionally trained as a meie warrior. As such, she fears nothing, except the cold and inscrutable Nor and their dark magic.   Something in Serroi's childhood awakened her to a shocking and terrible truth about these malevolent wizards, one of whom both saved and cursed her in her earliest years. It is her deep-seated terror that causes her to betray and abandon her shieldmate, Tayyan, during a rooftop battle with a magic-wielder, a craven act that threatens to haunt Serroi to the end of her days.   However, it is not cowardice that makes her run, but rather her knowledge of a great evil in the offing. In that instant before flight, Serroi recognizes the coming of something monstrous, though she cannot yet put a name to it. Now it is up to the young warrior to somehow prevent the unthinkable: She must alter a grim destiny that is set to occur on the fateful and fearful night known as Moongather, when demons will be free to enter the world.   Richly imaginative and stylistically inventive-told from the alternate viewpoints of the child Serroi just coming of age and of Serroi as a grown woman-author Jo Clayton's epic fantasy is a magnificent reading experience, evoking wonder and terror in equal measure. Moongather details a complex world of magic and dark political intrigue where divine forces do secret battle, and where the foundations of a matriarchal society and of native life itself are threatened by the twisted desires of a jealous queen and a powerful wizard. Creator of the much loved Diadem Saga and Skeen Trilogy, Clayton's engrossing, endlessly exciting Duel of Sorcery Trilogy firmly places her among the ranks of revered fantasists Jane Yolen, Mercedes Lackey, and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Warrior woman Serroi finds herself at the center of a deadly magical contest between a goddess and a dark wizard in this thrilling sequel to Moongather.  Moonscatter is the second volume of prolific American fantasist Jo Clayton's Duel of Sorcery Trilogy, carrying readers back into the richly imagined fantasy world of Moongather,and into the heat of a warrior woman's desperate battle to save it from annihilation by the most terrible wizard of the realm.   As a young child, Serroi was held in thrall to Ser Noris, the powerful and villainous mage who saved her from certain death only to exploit her as a tool in his unholy experiments in necromancy and demonic possession. After being cast aside, she became a chosen warrior of the meie, though nightmarish memories continue to haunt her. As for the dark sorcerer, his power and malevolence have since increased a thousandfold. Having achieved eternal life, no evil in this world can compare with his, and now Ser Noris, bored with a lack of worthy opponents, has challenged the Goddess herself, She who lives at the center of all things.   Only Serroi can truly recognize the terrible depth of the darkness that is overtaking her world. And as she sets forth on a desperate quest to locate the last remaining power capable of defeating Ser Noris's insidious plot-the enigmatic and wildly unpredictable hermit Coyote-a young girl in a faraway village, whose fate will soon be intertwined with Serroi's, is coming of age in a time of violence and fear.   But what chance do mere mortal heroes have when faced with malevolence so powerful and brazen that it dares to take on a goddess, and would obliterate an entire world on a whim?   An enthralling epic tale of courage, destiny, swords, and sorcery, Moonscatter stands at the center of an unsung classic high fantasy trilogy that proves Clayton once again to be the artistic and imaginative equal of revered contemporaries Andre Norton, Jane Yolen, C. J. Cherryh, and other greats in the field of speculative fiction.

Warrior woman Sorrei hires mercenaries from another world to halt the destruction of her own in the riveting conclusion to the Duel of Sorcery Trilogy.   A superior fantasist on par with Jane Yolen, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, and other acknowledged masters of speculative fiction, the accomplished world-builder Jo Clayton concludes her magnificent Duel of Sorcery fantasy trilogy by turning expectations around and taking her classic sword and sorcery tale into breathtaking new territory.   As a magical contest between a sorcerer and a goddess races toward its terrible conclusion, a world is left hanging in the balance. But suddenly the rules change.   Once, the meie warrior Sorrei was a helpless pawn of Ser Noris, doing the dark wizard's bidding as he delved into unnatural worlds and demonic arts. No one feared the great sorcerer more than she, which is why Sorrei risked her life to bring Coyote, the Changer, into the game. However, now that the Nor mage has drawn the magical cards that give him the upper hand against the Indweller goddess, the world they have been playing for appears irrevocably his.   But hope lives on in another place and time. A world far removed from Sorrei's own-in an alternate realm shackled by the yoke of cruel political repression, yet where the ignited fires of rebellion burn hot and bright-is where the meie must now turn for help. Sorrei cannot falter, for the warrior has become a priestess in the service of the Changer and in her hands she holds the last hope for the continuation of all things.   In the astonishing finale to her monumental trilogy, the great Clayton ingeniously reinvents sword and sorcery high fantasy. Concluding a magnificent epic tale of courage, magic, doom, and destiny with a grand flourish, she takes enormous risks and succeeds magnificently, making the remarkable final chapter of the Duel of Sorcery something truly magical indeed.