Arrows of the Sun (Avaryan Rising) - Hardcover

Tarr, Judith

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312852630 ISBN 13: 9780312852634

Publisher: Tor Books, 1993

Synopsis

Judith Tarr returns to her created world of mages in this fourth volume of her Avaryan Rising series. The Sunborn's heirs have ruled the two empires for four generations, but the latest heir to the thrones of Endros and Asanion does not sit easily. Estarion saw his father die in the golden palace of Asanion, victim of mage-wrought poison and the enduring hatred of a conquered race. On the very day of his enthronement, after long years of regency, Estarion is forced to agree to return to Asanion - and he vows that even if he must rule that accursed land, he will never love it.
With the new Golden Emperor travels his beloved, Vanyi, the mage-born priestess who can never be Empress. She was born a common fisherman's daughter, but gifted with great power - more, perhaps, than the Emperor himself wields.
And waiting for them In the Golden Palace of Asanion is plot and intrigue, conspirators who would kill the son as they killed the father. They would place their own creature on the throne of empires, and their own God in the seat of the Sunlord.

About this title

About the Author:

My first novel, The Isle of Glass, appeared in 1985, and eventually won the Crawford Award, as well as being a finalist for the Locus Award for Best First Novel. My YA time-travel science fiction/fantasy/historical novel, Living in Threes, appeared as an ebook from Book View Café in 2012, and is now in print. My new novel, a space opera, will be published by Book View Cafe in 2015. In between, I've written historicals and historical fantasies and epic fantasies, some of which have been reborn as ebooks from Book View Café. Various of my novels have been finalists for the World Fantasy Award and the Locus Award, and I've had short stories reprinted in Year's Best anthologies and collections of classic fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history. I live in Arizona with an assortment of cats, two dogs, and a herd of Lipizzan horses.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Sequel to Tarr's Avaryan Rising trilogy--concluded with A Fall of Princes (1988)--about Mirain the Sunborn and the forcibly united empires of Asanion and Keruvarion. Four generations have passed since Mirain, but Estarion rules Asanion, the western portion of his empire, with unease: his father was murdered there by mage-wrought poison, and so terrible was Estarion's revenge that he expended much of his godlike power. But the rift must be healed, so Estarion will marry an Asanion woman, and learn to understand a people he hates and despises. His lover Vanyi is a mage who knows she must give him up for the good of the empire; his opponents are the secretive and powerful mages of Asanion, and the mysterious Olenyas warrior-clan who guard the throne. Among the Olenyas is Korusan, last of the Asanion royal bloodline. As Estarion is soothed and befuddled by the Asanion mages, so he and Korusan become lovers. Slowly, a great conspiracy emerges: the Asanion mages belong to a hidden Guild that spans the magical Gates between worlds; the conspirators intend to force Estarion through the Gate leading to the Tower of the Sunborn, where Mirain sleeps: woken, Mirain's sun's fire would burn and shrivel Estarion. Even if Estarion can overcome his love and slay the murderous Korusan, Vanyi must still defeat the Guild-mages if Estarion is to survive. Other than the proper names, which sound as if they've wandered in from Tolkien's Beleriand: persuasively produced, thoughtful and modestly inventive, a considerable, newcomer- friendly improvement on the rather stodgy original trilogy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0312852630
• ISBN 13: 9780312852634
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 510