<b>"To call <i>The Promise of the Child</i> one of the most accomplished debuts of 2015 so far is to understate its weight - instead, let me moot that it is among the most significant works of science fiction released in recent years."<br> - <i>Tor.com</i></b><br><br><i>It is the 147th century.</i><br><br>In the radically advanced post-human worlds of the Amaranthine Firmament, there is a contender to the Immortal throne: Aaron the Long-Life, the Pretender, a man who is not quite a man.<br><br>In the barbarous hominid kingdoms of the Prism Investiture, where life is short, cheap, and dangerous, an invention is born that will become the Firmament's most closely kept secret.<br><br>Lycaste, a lovesick recluse outcast for an unspeakable crime, must journey through the Provinces, braving the grotesques of an ancient, decadent world to find his salvation.<br><br>Sotiris, grieving the loss of his sister and awaiting the madness of old age, must relive his twelve thousand years of life to stop the man determined to become Emperor.<br><br>Ghaldezuel, knight of the stars, must plunder the rarest treasure in the Firmament - the object the Pretender will stop at nothing to obtain.<br><br>From medieval Prague to a lonely Mediterranean cove, and eventually far into the strange vastness of distant worlds, <i>The Promise of the Child</i> is a debut novel of gripping action and astounding ambition unfolding over hundreds of thousands of years, marking the arrival of a brilliant new talent in science fiction.<br>
