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Overview
Carnelian is of the Masters, cruel beings who rule their kingdom from an earthly paradise hidden in a crater that is the navel of the world. Soon after he is born, Carnelian's father takes him across the sea to an island in the colourless north. Far from the Crater's rituals and pomp, their household is allowed to become a family to the boy and the world of the Masters fades to alluring fairy tale.In deepest winter, years later, a ship comes riding before the gales, three Masters her only cargo. As these giants remove their masks of gold, Carnelian is awed by the light that seems to radiate from their skin. In formal conclave they ask Carnelian's father to end his exile and return with them to oversee the election of a new God Emporer. His father's agreement feeds Carnelian's longing for the world beyond the sea, but as the days pass Carnelian watches with growing horror as the ship's needs devour his home. The Masters are indifferent, imperious, concerned only with their blood politics, their majesty. As his father becomes strangely powerless, Carnelian strives to save his people, but when the ship turns her pro towards the stormy sea he knows that he is abandoning them to famine among the ruins of his former home.
This is the beginning of Carnelian's journey. The terror of the tempest yields to the weary grind along the road, the climb up the forbidding cliff wall to the Guarded Land and then the frantic rush into the deep south. Carnelian's education, which began with the starving of his people, proceeds with bitter lessons in bloodshed, intrigue and betrayal. When they finally reach the Canyon of the Three Gates, which leads into the Crater, Carnelian finds both love and treachery, but it is here within the Heaven Wall that he will set in motion the concluding events in a story already ten thousand years old.
Editorials
Carolyn Cushman
...[A]n involving tale....a fascinating world crafted in intricate detail, a substantial backdrop for a series — and a very impressive first novel. —LocusPublishers Weekly -
The launch novel to debut author Pinto's epic fantasy trilogy begins with a fairly conventional tale about the coming of age of Carnelian Suth, a young aristocrat. Suth, who's been in exile (with his father) from his native land, returns to the Imperial capital of Osrakum when his father is called back to act as regent during a succession crisis. From there, Pinto, who's Portuguese but lives in Scotland, draws a luscious picture of a viciously hierarchical and decadent society and tells a complicated story involving a dowager empress, a set of twins, homosexuality, emperors, putsches and two lovers imprisoned in giant jars and left to await their execution. The novel takes readers on an extremely literate and detailed journey distinguished by Pinto's outstanding imagination, extensive research and excellent world-building. The book is full of memorable conceits--resident aristocrats always wear masks and body paint, for example, and court servants, deprived of every sense except touch, keep their records on strings of beads--but Pinto frequently seems to get so lost in his ornate world that he forgets he's telling a story. Still, an exceptionally fine 300-page novel lurks within the decorative flourishes of this 500-page-plus book. Agent, Victoria Hobbs. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|Carolyn Cushman
...[A]n involving tale....a fascinating world crafted in intricate detail, a substantial backdrop for a series — and a very impressive first novel.— Locus
Peter Heck
Pinto has crafted a surprisingly vivid imaginative world, one full of sharp edges and oppressive dangers. The level of violence here may be higher than some readers are comfortable with, but on the whole this is a very promising debut. Likely to appeal strongly to the same audience that has put Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind on the genre bestseller lists.—Asimov's Science Fiction
Book Details
Published
September 30, 2010
Publisher
Transworld Publishers Limited
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781409009887