Visit
a draft map for the book here.
The
Serpent Bride is the first book of Darkglass Mountain.
I've just finished the first draft of it, so now it
appears to be time to say something about it ...
It
was a wonderful book to write, although it took just
ages. Combining characters from Ashdod, Tencendor and
Escator was nowhere as difficult as I'd imagined. Instead,
it was a delight to sit Axis down with Maximilian of
Escator, and to have StarDrifter hold the Goblet of
the Frogs in his hands, and wonder.
Don't
expect to see many of the characters of the Tencendor
series back. Axis and StarDrifter are the main ones,
although others may make guest appearances from time
to time (please do not expect to see Faraday and Drago
again - you won't, I concluded their story at the end
of the previous series). You may be surprised, though
at the number of Icarii who managed to survive the fall
of Tencendor (they're such a wonderful race, I just
had to bring them back).The action takes place in Coroleas,
in the northern Kingdoms (east of Escator), in the strange
Outlands, and down in Isembaard, an empire which has
swallowed up Ashdod.
It
is about five years since the conclusion of the Wayfarer
Redemption, about eight years since the conclusion
of Beyond the Hanging Wall,
and some two thousand years after Boaz and Tirzah nipped
Nzame's hopes in the bud in Threshold.
StarDrifter has been moping about in Coroleas, Axis
has been drifting through the Otherworld with Azhure,
and Maximilian of Escator has been ... well, looking
for a wife.
Not
very successfully. Maximilian (or Maxel to those
closest to him) is a strange man, clearly marked
by his seventeen years trapped in the Veins. He
has odd habits - strange shadowy habits. He has
a lover, an Icarii woman called StarWeb, but he
just can't seem to find a decent woman to marry.
Everyone has declined his proposals. Then, out
of the blue, comes an offer apparently too good
to be true. Ishbel Lagarde, an Outlander noblewoman,
is looking for a husband. Her guardians are prepared
to offer her to Maximilian, together with her
massive inheritances and dowries.
Ishbel
owns half the eastern Kingdoms. Maximilian is
a lucky man.
Or
is he?
The
problem is that Ishbel's guardians are the strange Order
of the Coil, who live in Serpent's Nest in the far north
of the Outlands. Another character, Isaiah, Tyrant of
Isembaard, refers to them as obnoxious psychic murderers,
which is a fairly accurate summation of who and what
the Coil are.
Maximilian
is tempted by the promise of Ishbel's riches,
but cautious of her association with the Coil.
Just
how closely associated with them is she?
While
Maximilian sets off to meet Ishbel and discover
for himself what kind of woman she is, StarDrifter
falls in with the rather vile Salome of Sidon,
the most powerful woman in Coroleas. Meanwhile,
in Isembaard, Isaiah plans an invasion of the
north. He has allied with a most unlikely man
called Lister, who calls himself the Lord of the
Skraelings. While Isaiah invades from the south,
Lister plans a simultaneous invasion from the
north, catching the northern kingdoms in a pincer
movement.
Lister
controls the mass of Skraelings who inhabit the
frozen wastes to the north. But he is no Gorgrael.
Of everyone in this book he is hiding the most
secrets, and one of the more powerful of these
secrets is the strange race who aid him in his
invasion plans - the Lealfast.
Isaiah
certainly doesn't trust Lister. As insurance against
what he believes to be Julian's almost certain
betrayal, Isaiah manages to call back from the
Otherworld the one man most sure to aid him against
the Skraelings: Axis SunSoar.
Meanwhile,
Darkglass Mountain - previously known as Threshold -
sits brooding in the sun. Well may Boaz and Tirzah thought
to have destroyed it, but they did not count upon Threshold's
will to live.
And
to take revenge.
