Book Description
Fifth in the Nebula Award-nominated series.

The time of cataclysm is almost here when the land of the Aoi-cast forth from the world long centuries ago by an unimaginably powerful spell-weaving-will at last return to its starting point with disastrous consequences...

FROM OUR EDITORS

In the fifth book in Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars saga, the storm is indeed gathering. In this briskly paced, resonant novel, long suppressed forces surge forward, ominously darkening the starry skies. Glistening with mythic twists and sharply drawn characters, the sword-and-sorcery tale draws irresistibly towards its conclusion.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With the Gathering Storm, the long dreaded cataclysm is about to descend on the world as the lost land of the Aoi returns to the earth from which it was cast forth into the aether millennia ago. And though Liath has at last found her way back from the land of the Aoi, she knows that disaster will soon follow her. Yet just how little time remains to avert humanity's destruction she discovers to her horror only when she learns that her brief stay in the bespelled land has actually kept her from her family and her allies for nearly four years.

In that time Sanglant has mobilized an army and journeyed to the land of the griffins, intent on forging an alliance to stand against the forces which are determined to rework the spell that originally exiled the Aoi and their lands from the world. Alain, caught up by Liath as she makes her way back to her own world and time, has been saved from the ancient cataclysm which began this terrible cycle, but he has been returned to the present bereft of all that matters to him. And though for a while he finds refuge in a monastery, he is soon condemned to a terrible fate. His only hope of rescue now lies with the Eika leader Stronghand, who has begun a campaign of conquest into the human lands. Through the link they share, Stronghand learns of Alain's plight and is determined to aid him, a decision reinforced when the Oldmothers order him to find Alain before it is too late. And even as these diverse forces struggle to avert the fast-approaching disaster, the mathematici, under the leadership of Anne and Hugh, strive to re-create the original spell which exiled the ancient Aoi, neither knowing nor caring that their magical workings could tear their world apart...

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Lovers of big, complex fantasy novels will welcome Elliott's fifth entry in her Crown of Stars saga (after 2000's Child of Flame), set in a world with a strong flavor of the Holy Roman Empire. Liath, one of the Ashioi, a subrace of humans with magical powers, returns after four years of exile to find that her husband, Prince Sanglant, is trying to ally with the griffins to save the Ashioi from his diabolically possessed father, Emperor Henry. Liath and Sanglant's daughter, Blessing, is in danger as well. Borrowing from medieval history, Elliott fills her story with characters, institutions, spells, strange creatures, fascinating religious practices and still more characters (until a list of them is direly needed). The considerable similarities to Katherine Kurtz's Dernyi series should attract Kurtz fans. (Feb. 4) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

VOYA - Ann Welton

The fifth book in Elliott's Crown of Stars series, this hefty volume picks up as a terrible cataclysm is about to engulf the world. The exiled land of the Aoi is returning to the earth from which it was cast forth millennia prior. Skopos Anne, a religious leader, is plotting to cast the Aoi again into the aether, an action that will destroy the earth. Following numerous characters on several different fronts, the narrative switches from the efforts of the devastated Alain, still grieving for his lost love Adica, to Liath, returned from her time in the aether, to Prince Sanglant, the illegitimate son of King Henry of Wendar and Varre. As they all try to stop Anne from completing her destructive plot, unions are formed and alliances change. Movement from character to character (or set of characters) allows several narrative threads to run at the same time. Strong plotting, thorough world building, and sound characterization and character development make this novel a must-purchase for those collections that have invested in the rest of the series, as this volume certainly cannot stand alone. Comparing favorably to Diana Marcellas's Sea Lark's Song (Tor, 2002/VOYA June 2003), this sweeping military fantasy will be welcomed by fans of the earlier books. VOYA CODES: 3Q 3P J S A/YA (Readable without serious defects; Will appeal with pushing; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2003, DAW, 903p,

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