Part of Series
When stranded on the fringe of a crumbling Empire, how do you defend what really matters? The nomads of the southern deserts have a saying: “When something is broken it should never be discarded. So long as the pieces remains, the whole can be remade.” A time of trials, war and terror is coming to the desert city of M’Dahz, the Empire’s southernmost outpost. As Imperial power falters, then withdraws, the population lives in constant fear of invasion by vicious Pelasian satraps. Meanwhile, brothers Samir and Ghassan, and their childhood friend Asima, are about to discover that while people can change the world, the world can also change people. They must follow separate paths – as courtesan, naval officer, and pirate – yet their destinies are forever intertwined. Nothing is ever as it seems in this distant corner of the Empire, and a world of unexpected alliances, dangerous jealousies and deepest betrayals awaits them… The third book in S.J.A. Turney’s Tales of the Empire series, Dark Empress is a heart-stopping journey by land and sea through a world of deception, scheming, and surprising valour. Reminiscent of C. S. Forester, Simon Scarrow, and Conn Iggulden, this is historical fantasy at its most readable, its enlightening and exciting best.
Author
Simon lives with his wife and children and a menagerie of animals in rural North Yorkshire, where he sits in an office, wired on coffee and digestive biscuits, and attempts to spin engrossing tales out of strands of imagination while his children drive toys across his desk and two dogs howl as they try to share a brain cell. A born and bred Yorkshireman with a love of country, history and architecture, Simon spends most of his rare free time travelling around ancient sites, writing, researching the ancient world and reading voraciously. Following an arcane and eclectic career path that wound through everything from sheep to Microsoft networks and from paint to car sales, Simon wrote Marius’ Mules and, with help and support, made a success of it. Now, with in excess of 20 novels under his belt, Simon writes full time and is represented by MMB Creative literary agents. Simon writes Roman military novels in the form of the bestselling Marius’ Mules series based on Julius Caesar’s campaigns, Roman thrillers in the Praetorian series, set during the troubled reign of Commodus, medieval adventures in the Ottoman Cycle, following a young Greek thief around the 15th century world, and a series of Historical Fantasy novels with a Roman flavour, called the Tales of the Empire. Simon can be found on Twitter as @SJATurney and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SJATurney/ as well as on his website http://www.sjaturney.co.uk
