The Ring of Five Dragons
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A towering epic of fantasy, The Pearl, is launched in The Ring of Five Dragons. Filled with action, color, and the myriad details of another world, The Pearl is the first great fantasy series of the new millennium, set to rival Robert Jordan, David Eddings, George R. R. Martin, Terry Brooks, and Terry Goodkind in popular appeal.
This astonishing first volume opens as the Kundalan people have suffered for a century under the viciously oppressive, technologically-superior V'ornn invaders. In the resulting crisis of faith -- why hasn't their goddess Miina saved them? -- Kundalan religion has fallen under the control of evil forces from within who forbid the teaching of traditional sorcery, pretending to have no magic of their own. The V'ornn's mysterious leaders, the Gyrgon, know better, and search for the lost Ring of Five Dragons, the key to the door of the fabled Kundalan Storehouse, and perhaps to Kundalan sorcery as well.
But misused, the Ring is the trigger of seemingly inexorable annihilation for V'ornn and Kundalan alike. Now from among the oppressed must arise the hero of prophecy, the Dar Sala-at, who alone can wield the sorcerous power to save the world.
Thus begins a huge epic rooted in the conflict between spiritual and technological cultures. The twisting plot raises difficult and provocative moral questions in the course of a constantly surprising, sometimes shocking, fantastic adventure that will transport fantasy readers to new heights of enthusiasm, and make them ask for more.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An imaginative, otherworldly culture clash between technology and spirituality fires this ambitious first novel in a projected multivolume epic fantasy from bestseller Lustbader (Angel Eyes; French Kiss; etc.). Under the oppressive rule of the technologically superior V'ornn, the spiritually evolved people of Kundala have suffered a century of enforced slavery, wondering why their goddess Miina has abandoned them. The militaristic Gyrgon technomages, members of a V'ornn caste, yearn for the secrets of Kundalan magic, yet their misuse of the lost Ring of Five Dragons could be cataclysmic. Gifted in healing and mystical arts, the twin Ramahan priestesses, Giyan and Bartta, know they must locate and protect the prophesied savior, Dar Sala-at, "the Chosen One of Miina who would find The Pearl and use it to free the Kundalan from their bondage to the V'ornn." The twins head a huge cast an appendix lists 30 major characters that parades against the backdrop of Lustbader's richly detailed tapestry, with its complex plotting, fluid action writing and vivid descriptive passages. Another appendix provides a pronunciation guide to the V'ornn language, but a much-needed lexicon to Lustbader's litany of curiously coined words (cthauros, laaaddis, numaaadis) is unfortunately absent a minor quibble, since both newcomers to Lustbader and his ardent admirers will champion this novel as a potent portal to fabulous mythic realms.