The King of Ys

Series · 4 books · 1986-2013

By Poul Anderson

Books in series

Roma Mater

1986

In the waning days of the Roman Empire, Magnus Maximus sends his prefect Gratillonius to western Gaul and the faraway land of Ys, a place shrouded in legend and ruled by a cruel and tyrannical king. When the sovereign challenges Gratillonius to a duel, the envoy from Rome emerges victorious and claims the throne as the new king of Ys, inheriting a land whose religion, culture, and history are entirely foreign. He also gains the former king’s nine wives, the Gallicenae, a powerful group of women to whom he must appear equally devoted despite his growing feelings for one in particular. As he adjusts to his new role as ruler of Ys, Gratillonius must fight to keep his strange new country on its feet while the rest of the Roman Empire begins to crumble around him.

Gallicenae

1987

As the Roman Empire loses its grip on its far-flung territories, the mystical kingdom of Ys in western Gaul is in great danger of slipping into oblivion. Suffocated for years by the rule of a tyrant king, Ys’s last hope arrived in the form of a Roman emissary, Gratillonius, who defeated the sitting king to take the throne himself. Now Gratillonius must grapple with the kingdom’s political strife and religious tensions while balancing his responsibilities to the Gallicenae, nine wide-ranging witches who have become his wives. Though Rome seeks to spread Christianity, and Gratillonius stands firm in his worship of Mithras, the Ysans hold to an entirely different religion in service of pagan deities who must be obeyed lest grave consequences descend on the fragile kingdom.

Dahut

2013

In book three of the King of Ys series, Gratillonius’s reign faces a deadly new threat from across the sea For sixteen years Gratillonius has been the king of Ys, a position he has used to bring the once-teetering city-state back to stability as the Roman Empire continues to collapse around it. Rome would prefer a more malleable leader in Gratillonius’s place and makes no secret of it. As pressure from Roman leadership increases, Gratillonius must also contend with Niall maqq Echach, the leader of Northern Ireland who holds the Ysan king responsible for the death of his son. Compounding these complications is the ever-present threat of retribution by the Ysan gods, should the kingdom’s leadership make a misstep. But perhaps the greatest danger of all is unfolding from within Gratillonius’s own household, where, following the death of one of his nine wives, the gods have named an unsettling Dahut, Gratillonius’s own daughter. As treachery mounts from within and without, Gratillonius must hold to his principles in defiancé of the gods while still protecting Ys from the destruction closing in on all sides. Dahut is the third book in Poul and Karen Anderson’s King of Ys series, which concludes with The Dog and the Wolf .

The Dog and the Wolf

1988

After the fall of Ys, Gratillonius, once the King, must try to save his remaining people from the advance of the barbarians.

Author

Poul Anderson

Author · 152 books

Pseudonym A. A. Craig, Michael Karageorge, Winston P. Sanders, P. A. Kingsley. Poul William Anderson was an American science fiction author who began his career during one of the Golden Ages of the genre and continued to write and remain popular into the 21st century. Anderson also authored several works of fantasy, historical novels, and a prodigious number of short stories. He received numerous awards for his writing, including seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. Anderson received a degree in physics from the University of Minnesota in 1948. He married Karen Kruse in 1953. They had one daughter, Astrid, who is married to science fiction author Greg Bear. Anderson was the sixth President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, taking office in 1972. He was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America, a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized in Lin Carter's Flashing Swords! anthologies. He was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of the other members of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.[2][3] Poul Anderson died of cancer on July 31, 2001, after a month in the hospital. Several of his novels were published posthumously. Series: * Time Patrol * Psychotechnic League * Trygve Yamamura * Harvest of Stars * King of Ys * Last Viking * Hoka * Future history of the Polesotechnic League * Flandry