City without End

 

City without End

Book Three of the Entire and the Rose

Kay Kenyon

472 pp • ISBN: 978-1-59102-698-3
Hardcover (6" x 9") • $26
February 2009
Cover Illustration: ©Stephan Martiniere

Trade paperback edition also available

  • Book Three of the critically-acclaimed epic series.
  • The first book in the series, Bright of the Sky, was named among Publishers Weekly’s top 150 titles for 2007.
  • Author plans extensive tour of bookstores and conventions.
  • Stephan Martiniere’s cover illustration won the prestigious Silver Spectrum award.

 

In this series Kay Kenyon has created her most vivid and compelling society yet, the universe Entire. Reviewers have called this “a grand world,” “an enormous stage,” and “a bravura concept.”

On this stage unfolds a mighty struggle for dominance between two universes. Titus Quinn has forged an unstable peace with the Tarig lords. The ruinous capability of the nanotech surge weapon he possesses ensures détente. But it is a sham. In what the godwoman Zhiya calls “a fit of moral goodness,” he’s thrown the weapon into the space-folding waters of the Nigh. This clears the way for an enemy he could have never foreseen: the people of the Rose. A small cadre led by Helice Maki is determined to take the Entire for itself and leave the earth in ruins. The transform of earth will begin deep in a western desert and will sweep over the lives of ordinary people, entangling Quinn’s sister-in-law Caitlin in a deepening and ultimate conspiracy.

In the Entire, Quinn stalks Helice to the fabled Rim City, encircling the heart of the Entire. Here he at last finds his daughter, now called Sen Ni, in the Chalin style. Outside of earth-based time, she has grown to adulthood. He hardly knows her, and finds her the mistress of a remarkable dream-time insurgency against the Tarig lords—and more, a woman risen high in the Entire’s meritocracy. Quinn needs his daughter’s help against the woman who would destroy the earth. But Sen Ni has her own plans and allies, among them a boy-navitar unlike any other pilot of the River Nigh—a navitar willing and supremely able to break his vows and bend the world.

Quinn casts his fate with the beautiful and resourceful Ji Anzi who—sent on a journey to other realms—holds the key to Quinn’s heart and his overarching mission. But as he approaches the innermost sanctuary of the Tarig, he is alone. Waiting for him are powerful adversaries, including a lady who both hates and loves him, the high prefect of the dragon court, and Quinn’s most implacable enemy, a warrior whose chaotic mind will soon be roused from an eternal slumber.


Reviews

Reviewers Praised the first two books of The Entire and The Rose:

Bright of the Sky:

"Kenyon's deft prose, high-stakes suspense and skilled, thorough world building will have readers anxious for the next installment."
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[A] splendid fantasy quest as compelling as anything by Stephen R. Donaldson, Philip José Farmer or, yes, J.R.R. Tolkien. ...you can actually feel the grasses and smell the smoke from the trains and experience great wonder in the cities of this impossible yet beautiful universe."
—Washington Post Book World


A World Too Near:

"Kay Kenyon continues to offer some neat adventures for her protagonists in this really alluring offbeat universe she's created.…all the characters continue to be fascinatingly complex.….every minor character is endowed with exceptional depth and reality.…the artificial universe known as the Entire remains a great conception and playground for adventure....I'll certainly be back for the next installment, hoping for more aspects of the Entire to emerge."
—Sci Fi Weekly

"Tangled motivations, complex characters and intriguing world-building will keep readers on the edges of their seats."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)