Wars of Light and Shadow

The stunning first volume in Janny Wurts's epic tale of two half-brothers cursed to life-long enmity. The world of Athera lives in eternal fog, its skies obscured by the malevolent Mistwraith. Only the combined powers of two half-brothers can challenge the Mistwraith's stranglehold: Arithon, Master of Shadow and Lysaer, Lord of Light. Arithon and Lysaer will find that they are inescapably bound inside a pattern of events dictated by their own deepest convictions. Yet there is more at stake than one battle with the Mistwraith - as the sorcerers of the Fellowship of Seven know well. For between them the half-brothers hold the balance of the world, its harmony and its future, in their hands.

Janny Wurts's epic tale of two half-brothers cursed to life-long enmity continues in this spectacular second volume. The half-brothers Arithon, Master of Shadow, and Lysaer, Lord of Light, have defeated the Mistwraith and dispersed the fogs that smothered Athera's skies. But their victory comes at a high price: the Mistwraith has set them at odds under a powerful curse of vengeance. The two princes are locked in deadly enmity, with the fates of nations and the balance of the world's mystical powers entangled in their feud. Arithon, forced out of hiding, finds himself hounded by Lysaer and his mighty army. He must take to his natural element - the seas - in order to evade pursuit and steal the initiative. However, his efforts are impeded by outside magical factions, not to mention a drunken prophet sent to safeguard his life, but who seems determined to wreck his cause by misadventure.

Tricked once more by his wily half-brother, Lysaer arrives at the tiny harbour town of Merior, to find that his brother's ship yards have been meticulously destroyed and abandoned. But where is Arithon? The forces of light and shadow circle and feint, drawing ever closer to a huge conflict. Tricked once more by his wily half-brother, Lysaer, Lord of Light, arrives at the tiny harbour town of Merior to find that Arithon's ship yards have been abandoned and meticulously destroyed, and that the Master of Shadow has disappeared as if into thin air. Meanwhile Arithon and the Mad Prophet Dakar are travelling on foot through the treacherous Kelhorn Mountains towards the Vastmark clans, there to raise further support for his cause. But raising a warhost is a costly business. Is it mere coincidence that Princess Talith - Lysaer's beautiful, headstrong wife - is taken captive and held for a vast ransom by a master brigand? The forces of light and shadow circle and feint, drawing ever closer to a huge conflict. And in the background the Fellowship of Seven Sorcerers and the Koriani Enchantresses watch and plan, and wait...

Where there is light, there must always be shadow... The fourth volume in Janny Wurts's spectacular epic fantasy. The schism began with two half-brothers empowered to subdue a Mistwraith. In revenge it cursed them to a life of perpetual conflict. Each believes absolutely in his cause, and loathes the other for opposing it... Lysaer, Prince of the Light - a charismatic leader sworn to set humanity free from sorcerous oppression. He claims divine power to safeguard his people from an enemy he is convinced will destroy them. Arithon, Master of Shadow - a trained mage who wishes for nothing but to defuse war, and search out the vanished old races who hold the key to restore the world's shattered peace. When Koriani enchantresses join forces with Lysaer, new intrigues upset Arithon's hard-won autonomy. Faction is set against faction, heart against heart, and the scene is set for an explosive recurrence of war. The curse of the Mistwraith echoes eternal...

Where there is light, there must always be shadow... The fifth volume in Janny Wurts's spectacular epic fantasy, now re-released with a striking new cover design along with the rest of the series. The wars began when two half-brothers, gifted of light and shadow, stood shoulder to shoulder to defeat the Mistwraith. Their foe cast a lifelong curse of enmity between them that has so far woven three bitter conflicts and uncounted deadly intrigues. It is a time of political upheavel, fanaticism and rampaging armies. Distrust of sorcery has set off a purge of the talented mageborn - none reviled more than Arithon, Master of Shadow. Through clever manipulation of events at the hands of his half-brother Lysaer, Lord of Light, Arithon's very name has become anathema. Now the volatile hatreds that spearheaded the campaign against Shadow have overtaken all reason. Those that still stand in Arithon's desperate defence are downtrodden, in retreat and close to annihilation. The stage is set for the ultimate betrayal.

Where there is light, there must always be shadow... The fourth volume in Janny Wurts's spectacular epic fantasy, now re-released with a striking new cover design along with the rest of the series. The curse that hangs over the Master of Shadow, Arithon, and Lord of Light, Lysaer, is drawing the two half-brothers ever closer towards direct conflict. For the Natural Balance to be maintained, the two must never fight. If they do, one is sure to perish and the Mistwraith will regain its evil power over their world. Even now, Lysaer - convinced of his own godhead and aided by the treacherous Koriani Sisterhood - is tracking Arithon the Masterbard through the snows and wastes of the winter-locked mountains and the Barrens of Daon Ramon. Arithon is tortured by the knowledge that for the sake of future generations he must not be killed, no matter the cost of others' lives now. Fighting valiantly to prevent unnecessary suffering, he strikes out on his own; but he is injured and failing fast. Meanwhile, the ancient Paravians are stirring, summoned by trespassers on their sacred domain; and the Fellowship of Seven are battling on many other fronts, as the Mistwraith's wards begin to break, and khadrim and free wraiths roam the land...

The gripping penultimate instalment of The Alliance of Light. When half-brothers Lysaer and Arithon defeated the Mistwraith its revenge left them cursed to lifelong enmity. Having conquered the maze and acheived self-redemption, Arithon, Master of Shadow, is now the guest of the formidable sorcerer, Davien the Betrayor. No one knows how his influence will affect Arithon's recovered mage power, or his newly awakened rogue talent for prescience. Meanwhile Arithon's relentless enemies will stop at nothing to acheive his downfall. The Koriani enchantresses are determined to make him their captive and their pawn. And as the Alliance of Light fanatics regroup after their defeat, the core of their priesthood now stands corrupted by a drak cabal who plot to enslave their leader, Lysaer, and use the Mistwraith's curse as their own private weapon to break the world's order. The sorcerers of the Fellowship compact are sorely beset and the clans are counting their ruinous losses. Arithon, who holds their last hope of survival, chooses the most dangerous course: heart and mind he dedicates himself to avoiding killing, though allies and enemies muster for war, single-mindedly blind to the consequences.

The spellbinding final instalment of The Alliance of Light. Though Athera may be free, the fight is far from over... The heart stopping conclusion to the Alliance of Light series brings Lysaer's army of Light to besiege the great citadel of Alestron. Master of Shadow, Arithon, with barely a moment's recuperation from his victory over the necromancers, has discovered that young Jeynsa s'Valerient whom he has sworn to protect, has joined the ranks of his disowned allies within the threatened citadel. Worse, following a failed rescue attempt, his beloved Elaira, his double, Fionn Areth, and the spellbinder Dakar are also trapped within Alestron's walls. The chancy wiles of Davien the betrayer must spirit Arithon across the enemy lines to attempt a bold and perilous rescue mission. Arithon must seek the heart core of his talent, even while embroiled in a savage battle against those he has vowed to protect. But treachery strikes from deep within the duke's ranks. Lysaer's fanatics will be unleashed to claim their bloody revenge. With the Fellowship Sorcerers in mortal danger, and all under threat from a collapsing grimward, Davien the betrayer is unable to intercede to save his colleagues and so will be forced to invoke the dire terms of an ancient and most secretive bargain. Arithon stands alone at the hour of reckoning as the true purpose of the Koriani enchantresses becomes, at long last fully, unveiled - with the covetous Prime Matriarch now poised to snatch a prize, a prize beyond that of merely integrity and life...

The long-awaited beginning of the fourth story arc - Sword of the Canon - in the epic fantasy series, the Wars of Light and Shadow. Betrayed and double-crossed, Arithon s'Ffalenn is held captive by the Order of the Koriathain. The desperate Fellowship Sorcerers have gambled the weal of Athera and forced through the perilous bargain that spared him, as the last Prince of Rathain, and their sole hope of unity. To suspend the Prime Matriarch's decree of execution, Arithon lives only to battle Marak's horde of free wraiths, unleashed one by one from the shielding grip of the star wards. But on the day the last wraith is redeemed, the inflexible terms sealed by Dakar's oath of debt will be forfeit... Against a backdrop in which the Religion of Light has undergone schism, the fanatical True Sect's high priesthood stands consumed by its thwarted ambition: to conquer Havish, the backbone of order that secures the terms of Paravian survival. Now Lord Mayor of Etarra, Lysaer s'Ilessid must fight the pull of the Mistwraith's curse, and battle for sanity to uphold his just ethic. Another young defender will stand at his side, newly sworn by the Sorcerer's auspices. As Arithon's life once again becomes the fulcrum that shifts the game board, Elaira's choice might save or break the unstable future; while at large and answerable to no mortal law, Davien and the dragon that holds his service throw in the wild card no one predicts...

The long-awaited second book of the fourth story arc - Sword of the Canon - in the epic fantasy series, the Wars of Light and Shadow. Lysaer's unstable integrity lies under threat of total downfall, and as his determined protector, Daliana will face the most frightening decision of her young life. Arithon, Master of Shadow, is marked for death and still hunted, when his critical quest to recover his obscured past entangles him in a web of deep intrigue and ancient perils beyond his imagining. Elaira's urgent pursuit of the Biedar Tribes' secret embroils her in the terrible directive of the Fellowship Sorcerers, while Dakar - the Mad Prophet - confronts the hard reckoning for the colossal mistake of his misspent past, and Tarens is steered by a destiny far from his crofter's origins. The penultimate volume of The Wars of Light and Shadow will touch the grand depths of Athera's endowment, and deliver the thrilling finale of arc IV, the Sword of the Canon. War, blood, magic, mystery - and the most hidden powers of all - will stand or fall on their hour of unveiling.

In the final battle of Light against Shadow, warring factions prepare to meet the bare fist of Arithon's fury, sparked by the execution of the innocent murdered by divine decree. As the Fellowship Sorcerers clash with rebellious dragons bent on catastrophic annihilation, those faithful to the True Sect raise armies to extinguish the clans and fight a last, bloody conquest of the free wilds. All while the Prime Matriarch courts reckless power to seize charge of Mankind's destiny. As contention threatens to snap the final restraint of old Charter Law, bitter strife and vicious ambition threaten to revoke humanity's right to inhabit the world. The only hope of survival for all lies in the recovery of the Paravians, those who last called Athera home before Mankind. The true hearts of heroes will be challenged in the savage fires of conflict; Elaira and Daliana's steadfast loyalties must rise against the odds or fall as Lysaer's reckoning collides with the Mistwraith's secretive machinations. But not before Elder Powers arise to claim their debt for a grievance spanning millennia...