The Shadow of the Lion (Heirs of Alexandria) - Hardcover

Lackey, Mercedes; Flint, Eric; Freer, Dave

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743435230 ISBN 13: 9780743435239

Publisher: Baen, 2002

Synopsis

In 1537 Venice, Marco and Benito Valdosta attempt to stop the evil sorcerer Chernobog and the monster that he has sent to destroy the city, while fleeing the assassins sent by the vicious Duke of Milan.

About this title

About the Author:

New York Times bestselling author Mercedes Lackey has written over one hundred titles and has no plans to slow down. Known best for her tales of Valdemar and The Five Hundred Kingdoms, she's also a prolific lyricist and records her own music.

From Publishers Weekly:

The prolific Lackey (the Bardic Voices series, the Urban Faerie series, etc.) and cohorts Flint (1632) and Freer (The Forlorn) whip up a luscious bouillabaisse of politics, intrigue, love and black magic set in an "Other-worldly, New-Age Venice." Like the actual 16th-century city-state, the authors' Venice of the 1530s is a dangerous place, filled with as many illicit love affairs as murders. Garbage and occasional dead bodies float in the stinking canals. The city is also a target for would-be foreign conquerors: the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, and the small city-state of Ferrara, ruled by Enrico Dell'este, who surreptitiously watches his grandsons, Marco and Benito, the story's water-rat heroes. Around Benito, a thief, and Marco, a canal doctor, swirl a host of characters, major and minor: the men and women who ply the gondolas and rafts; the spy Caesare Aldanto, the boys' supporter; plus courtesans, whores, monks, priests, knights, shamans, undines and the demon Chernobog. Meanwhile, the winged lion of St. Mark's, symbol of Venice, is stirring, and its shadow falls on Marco as the city's future ruler. The authors' use of contemporary American vernacular "get real," "fat chance," etc. instead of pompous period speech keeps the pages turning fast, but the last-minute stampede of fantastic monsters that abruptly resolves the story's various conflicts makes for a clunky climax. In a book this fat the glossary at the end is essential.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Baen
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743435230
• ISBN 13: 9780743435239
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 825