The Darkling Wind — S.P. Somtow

Kelver is leading a revolution to bring about the end of the twenty-thousand-year hegemony of the godlike Inquestors, who have presided over the million-planet Dispersal of Man in a reign of staggering cruelty and stunning beauty. Conflicted in their love for him are the two young Inquestors who trained with him -- Siriss, the White Inquestrix, who has joined his army and yet is compelled to betray him, and violet-eyed Arryk, who was his lover and is now his nemesis. War is inevitable and no world will be left unscathed.

The revolution comes to the planet Essondras, where Zalo, author of necrodramas, plays performed entirely by animated corpses, seeks the mythic truth behind the horrific reality, and where his lover, the darkweaver Ir Jenjen, is reinventing the art of darkness. Will Zalo continue to create stories for the dead, or will he learn the art of astrogating, guiding star whales through the light-mad overcosm to find humanity a new home?

S.P. Somtow paints on a vast canvas: in the words of Theodore Sturgeon, "a shattering storm that whirls away, leaving your world full of brilliance and cacophonies of color … few have even attempted the description of a universe so vast.…" Of his work, Analog said "He may yet give us the greatest science fiction novel of all time."

This classic, the towering epic of a galactic empire's collapse, comes in a new digital-friendly edition including for the first time the introduction written by Theodore Sturgeon.