A Grim Light Rising: Book One of The Illuminariad

From the author of THE LIGHTS OF BARBRIN, this epic fantasy unfolds in the world of Messano, devastated by a long-ago plague that left most people incapable of "fellow feeling" but which also spawned some peculiar mutants. The story begins when young Devianna decides to flee her village before anyone discovers she is a vacillian, a feared and hated freak of nature who unpredictably shifts back and forth between genders.She soon crosses paths with the itinerant bard Madino, part of a secret order that has been striving for centuries to heal Messano and return it to its former glory. The Annal he recites at Castle Inario, about the wise Soltans who once ruled the entire world, inspires King Nical with visions of unlimited power. When Nical's idiot-savant brother Tavi teaches himself to read and resurrects the lost art of forging iron, Nical sees a way to build himself an unstoppable army. He hasn't fully realized yet that he has ceased aging or that he owes his endless youth to the slave girls who fall in love with him, only to wither away and die.Arran - Nical and Tavi's other brother - swings back and forth between hopeless despair and giddy joy. Under the influence of foria smoke, a stimulant that elates him, he one day discovers that he can fly like an eagle and read currents within time unfolding. The brothers join forces to conquer the world, unaware that Silvana of the Orphanage has for years been training a secret army of her own to usurp the throne.Richly drawn characters vie for power in a this dark fantasy, unfolding on an epic scale.