An ancient weapon has destroyed the Androfrancine city of Windwir. From many miles away, Rudolfo, Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses, sees the horrifying column of smoke rising. Nearer to the Desolation, a young apprentice is the only survivor of the city—Nebios sat waiting for his father outside the walls and was transformed as he watched everyone he knew die in an instant. And within sight of Windwir sits Sethbert, the Overseer the Entrolusian City States, gloating in triumph. At his side Lady Jin Li Tam—her father's pawn in the game of statecraft, but destined to become her own Queen on the board. Soon all the Kingdoms of the Named Lands will be at another's throats, as alliances are challenged and hidden plots are uncovered.

Come back to the Named Lands. Nine months ago, the power and wealth of the now-dissolved Androfancine Order passed into the hands of Rudolfo, General of the Wandering Army and Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses. Nine months ago, his consort, Jin Li Tam, told him that she was finally with child and he would have an heir. Nine months ago, Rudolfo and Isaak began the arduous task of transcribing the books and records from the devastated city of Windwir that were stored in the memories of the mechoservitors, and collecting whatever books remained in the Named Lands into a new Great Library. Today, many noble allies have come to the Ninefold Forest for a feast in honor of General Rudolfo’s first-born child. Jin Li Tam lies in childbed, laboring to give birth… As the feast begins, the doors of the hall fly open and magicked, invisible assassins attack. The Gypsy Scouts are unable to fight them off, and all of Rudolfo’s noble guests are slain, including Hanric, the Marsh Queen’s Shadow. And yet Rudolfo himself is not touched. And at the same time, on the Keeper’s Gate, which guards the Named Lands from the Churning Wastes, a strange figure has appeared with a message for Petronus, the Hidden Pope. Thus begins the second movement of The Psalms of Isaak, Canticle.

Nothing is as it seems to be. The ancient past is not dead. The hand of the Wizard Kings still reaches out to challenge the Androfrancine Order, to control the magick and technology that they sought to understand and claim for their own. Nebios, the boy who watched the destruction of the city of Windwir, now runs the vast deserts of the world, far from his beloved Marsh Queen. He is being hunted by strange women warriors, while his dreams are invaded by warnings from his dead father. Jin Li Tam, queen of the Ninefold Forest, guards her son as best she can against both murderous threats, and the usurper queen and her evangelists. They bring a Jakob is the child of promise of their Gospel, and the Crimson Empress is on her way. And in hidden places, the remnants of the Androfrancine order formulate their response to the song pouring out of a silver crescent that was found in the wastes.

Ken Scholes' debut novel, Lamentation, was an event in fantasy. Heralded as a "mesmerizing debut novel" by Publishers Weekly, and a "vividly imagined SF-fantasy hybrid set in a distant, postapocalyptic future" by Booklist, the series gained many fans. It was followed by Canticle and Antiphon. Now comes the fourth book in The Psalms of Isaak, Requiem. Who is the Crimson Empress, and what does her conquest of the Named Lands really mean? Who holds the keys to the Moon Wizard's Tower? The plots within plots are expanding as the characters seek their way out of the maze of intrigue. The world is expanding as they discover lands beyond their previous carefully controlled knowledge. Hidden truths reveal even deeper truths, and nothing is as it seemed to be.

Ken Scholes completes his five-book epic that began with his acclaimed first novel Lamentation. The battle for control of The Named Lands has captivated readers as they have learned, alongside the characters, the true nature of world called Lasthome. Now the struggle between the Andro-Francine Order of the Named Lands and the Y’Zirite Empire has reached a terrible turning point. Believing that his son is dead, Rudolfo has pretended to join with the triumphant Y’zirite forces—but his plan is to destroy them all with a poison that is targeted only to the enemy. In Y’Zir, Rudolfo’s wife, Jin Li Tam, is fighting a war with her own father, which will bring that Empire to ruin. And on the Moon, Neb, revealed as one of the Younger Gods, takes the power of the Last Home Temple for his own.