The Tangled Lands

Description

Winner of the World Fantasy Award 2019, Best Collection. For fans of Ken Liu and Gene Wolfe. Khaim, the last city of a once-great empire, clings to life. This is a world poisoned by its addiction to magic. Every time a spell is cast, toxic bramble sprouts, bursting forth from tilled fields, thrusting up from between cobblestones. A bit of magic, and bramble follows until whole cities are consumed by tangling vines. Armies hack and burn... yet in a world that can't give up magic's sweet succour, the bramble can't be stopped. When Jeoz the alchemist discovers a potent new weapon to wield against the bramble, his invention promises Khaim freedom from fear and starvation. But these are twisted times and the bramble is not the only corruption that blights the land. 'Pulses with the siren call of power, the throb of remorse and dreams of redemption' Daily Mail. 'Exploring themes of power, corruption, greed and thwarted hope, the authors deliver an absorbing and sensitive fantasy' Guardian.

Paolo Bacigalupi is the bestselling author of The Windup Girl. Tobias Buckell is the bestselling author of Halo: The Cole Protocol. Between them, they have either won or been nominated for the Locus, Hugo, Nebula, Compton Crook, and John W. Campbell awards.

The two writers do a wonderful job of maintaining the same style, creating a coherent, rounded world peopled with imperfect, believable characters... [it] is well worth the investment' * SFX, featured book * The Tangled Lands has no right to be as good as it is. Conceptual, morally ambiguous, and incredibly timely, [it] explores well-wrought narratives of feminism and environmental justice in a beautifully crafted fantasy world that drips with rich lore and details at every turn * The Oberlin Review * A fascinating exercise in world-building; each story within the wider structure offering an explanation of a different part of Khaim * SciFiNow * An absorbing and sensitive fantasy * Guardian * A story cycle of high life and low, woven by two authors at the top of their game * Daily Mail *