The Last Green Tree
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Jim Grimsley's previous science fiction novel, The Ordinary, was named one of the Top Ten science fiction books of the year by Booklist and won the Lambda Literary Award. His novels and short stories have been favorably compared to those of Ursula K. Le Guin, Jack Vance, and Samuel R. Delany. Now Grimsley returns to the richly complex milieu of The Ordinary with a gripping tale of magic, science, and an epic clash between godlike forces.
Three hundred years have passed since the Conquest, and the Great Mage rules over all of humanity, even as cybernetic links connect the varied worlds of the empire. Vast Gates allow travel from one planet to another, across unimaginable distances. Choirs of chanting priests maintain order, their songs subtly shaping reality, while the armies of the empire have known nothing but total victory for centuries.
But on the planet Aramen, where sentient trees keep human symbionts as slaves, a power has arisen that may rival that of the Great Mage himself. Hordes of unnatural creatures rampage across the planet, leaving death and destruction in their wake. An inhuman intelligence, cruel and implacable, meets the priests' sung magic with a strange new music of its own. The Anilyn Gate is shut down, cutting off Aramen from the rest of humanity. The long era of peace is over.
Now a handful of traumatized survivors must venture deep into a hostile wilderness on a desperate mission to uncover the source of the enemy's powers. And the future of the universe may depend on the untested abilities of one damaged child. . . .
The Last Green Tree is a worthy successor to The Ordinary and a compelling saga in its own right.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Grimsley's intricate, well-crafted sequel to 2004's Lamba Award winner, The Ordinary, chronicles the rise of a war between epic forces; on one side is the powerful Mage, ruling an interplanetary empire that includes the interdimensional Anilyn Gate and the planet Aramen. There, the Mage orchestrates a redistribution of wealth between rich and poor, much to the dismay of the wealthy merchant Fineas Figg, the guardian of Keely File, a traumatized but strangely talented 10-year-old boy. But Fineas must soon worry about more than his money, as giant mantis creatures perpetrate a genocide that began as a rebel uprising against the Mage. Keely and Fineas team with the former rebel Kitra Poth and the priest Dekkar, who realizes that a powerful being known as Rao is orchestrating the mantis attack in a challenge to the Mage. Rao is also after Keely, but Dekkar is determined to protect him. The inconclusive ending to this complex work of world-building and large-scale politics seasoned with gore and desperation will have readers anxiously awaiting the next installment.