A powerful, layered weaving of myth, prose and pure imagination – The Ships of Merior continues an epic fantasy series perfect for enthusiasts of The Dark Tower and Earthsea. The second volume of Janny Wurts' incomparable series following Arithon and Lysaer, two brothers forced to take opposite sides in a relentless conflict. After defeating the malevolent fog that blighted Athera, Arithon and Lysaer battle the throes of the Mistwraith's insidious retribution: a curse set upon them at their moment of triumph compels them each to seek the other's downfall. Lysaer, the charming and charismatic Lord of Light, drives his brother out of hiding and hounds Arithon with a massive army at his command. Meanwhile Arithon, Master of Shadow, the sensitive mage who prefers music to violence, must take to the seas to evade capture and strike back against Lysaer's mighty war host. Locked into lifelong enmity, the brothers’ pursuit of each other's destruction will test the foundations of human morailty, even as threat to the world’s deepest magic rides on the outcome. THE SHIPS OF MERIOR weaves a rich and complicated tapestry, bringing readers deeper into the mystical world of Athera. Striking a balance between epic scope and intricate subtlety, the Wars of Light and Shadow is a must-read series for readers of intelligent fantasy.

Janny Wurts’s epic tale of two half-brothers cursed to life-long enmity reaches new heights in the third volume, now re-released with a striking new cover. Tricked once more by his wily half-brother, Lysaer, Lord of Light, arrives at the tiny harbour town of Merior to find that Arithon’s ship yards have been abandoned and meticulously destroyed, and that the Master of Shadow has disappeared as if into thin air. Meanwhile Arithon and the Mad Prophet Dakar are travelling on foot through the treacherous Kelhorn Mountains towards the Vastmark clans, there to raise further support for his cause. But raising a warhost is a costly business. Is it mere coincidence that Princess Talith – Lysaer’s beautiful, headstrong wife – is taken captive and held for a vast ransom by a master brigand? The forces of light and shadow circle and feint, drawing ever closer to a huge conflict. And in the background the Fellowship of Seven Sorcerers and the Koriani Enchantresses watch and plan, and wait…

The world of Athera lives in eternal fog, its skies obscured by the malevolent Mistwraith. Only the combined powers of two half-brothers can challenge the Mistwraith’s stranglehold: Arithon, Master of Shadow and Lysaer, Lord of Light. Arithon and Lysaer will find that they are inescapably bound inside a pattern of events dictated by their own deepest convictions. Yet there is more at stake than one battle with the Mistwraith – as the sorcerers of the Fellowship of Seven know well. For between them the half-brothers hold the balance of the world, its harmony and its future, in their hands. Critical Praise _‘Astonishingly original and compelling… A gifted creator of wonder’ RAYMOND E. FEIST ‘Janny Wurts builds beautiful castles in the air … where every detail is richly imagined and vividly rendered’ DIANA GABALDON ‘It ought to be illegal for one person to have so much talent’ STEPHEN DONALDSON —_