Five Hundred Years After (The Khaavren Romances)($14.99Value)

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In which our Heroes--Khaavren, Pel, Aerich and Tazendra--are reunited again a mere five centuries later...just in time for an uprising that threatens to destroy the Imperial Orb itself! This is the story of the conspiracy against the Empire that begins in the mean streets of Underside and flourishes in the courtly politics of the Palace where Khaavren has loyally served in the Guards this past half-millennium. It is the tale of the Dragonlord Adron's overweening schemes, of his brilliant daughter Aliers, and the eldritch Sethra Lavode. And it is the tale of four boon companions, of love, and of revenge...a tale from the history of Dragaera, of the events that changed the world! "A rollicking good read....A first-rank addition to Brust's works!"-- Publishers Weekly "Steven Brust might just be America's best fantasy writer!"--Tad Williams, N ew York Times bestselling author if T o Green Angel Tower "Brust is an indubitable master of swashbuckling high fantasy...Highly recommended, even for those who have not been following the saga of the Dragaeran Empire."-- Booklist Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and raised in a family of Hungarian labor organizers, Steven Brust worked as a musician and a computer programmer before coming to prominence as a writer in 1983 with Jhereg , the first of his novels about Vlad Taltos, a human professional assassin in a world dominated by long-lived, magically-empowered human-like "Dragaerans." Over the next several years, several more "Taltos" novels followed, interspersed with other work, including To Reign in Hell , a fantasy re-working of Milton's war in Heaven; The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars , a contemporary fantasy based on Hungarian folktales; and a science fiction novel, Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille . The most recent "Taltos" novels are Dragon and Issola . In 1991, with The Phoenix Guards , Brust began another series, set a thousand years earlier than the Taltos books; its sequels are Five Hundred Years After and the three volumes of "The Viscount of Adrilankha": The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode . While writing, Brust has continued to work as a musician, playing drums for the legendary band Cats Laughing and recording an album of his own work, A Rose for Iconoclastes. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada where he pursues an ongoing interest in stochastics. Five Hundred Years After BOOK One Chapter the First Which Treats of Matters Relating to the State of the Empire, And Introduces the Reader to The Emperor and Certain of His Court.       U PON THE FIRST DAY OF autumn, that is, the ninth day of the month of the Vallista in the five hundred and thirty-second year of the reign of His Imperial Majesty, Tortaalik I, of the House of the Phoenix, a messenger arrived at the Imperial Wing of the Palace and begged an audience with the Emperor.Before delving into the source and content of the message, we trust we will be allowed to say two words about the messenger herself, because this will provide an opportunity to set before the reader some of the conditions which prevailed at this time and in this place, and will thus equip him to better understand the history we propose to unfold.The messenger was a young woman of perhaps four hundred years, whose roundish face, stocky build, and straight, short brown hair without noble's point, all indicated unmistakably the House of the Teckla--a diagnosis easily confirmed by the roughness of her skin and the calluses on her hands. But far more interesting than her fallow state (if we may be permitted such a word to refer to her appearance as provided by nature) is her cultivated state, or the woman as she presented herself to those who guarded the Imperial Wing.She was dressed in the yellow, green, and brown of her House, but the yellow was the pure, bright color of those flowers that grow in the lower valleys of Tursk, and took the form of a silk blouse embroidered with russet needlework of an exceptionally fine character. Her leather riding pants were also russet, and flared widely around her boots, which were dyed the bright green of new grass and had wide extensions in the form of wings emerging from the heels. She wore, as well, a woolen cloak of a tan color, with a clasp in the form of a dzur, wrought with fine silver wire.These details now having been placed before the reader, let us make haste to follow her progress, which has not halted for our indulgences; while we have been describing her dress, the Teckla, whose name is Seb, after stating hermission, has been granted admission into the presence of His Majesty the Emperor, and we can, therefore, follow her and hear the delivery of this message ourselves.Because, being a Teckla, she could not be given a safe-conduct badge, Seb was escorted by one of the guardsmen on duty, a certain Dragonlord called Tummelis e'Terics, who brought her to the officer on duty, who looked the Teckla over briefly but thoroughly befo