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The time for heroes has come, but all the Riven Kingdom has is bastards.With war between the Militant Orders looming, the entire continent may soon be on fire. The very nature of magic has changed and the horrors of the deepest black are rising, but an even greater danger threatens to eclipse it all. Turning the tide of history may require a gamble only a bunch of drunken lunatics are willing to take.The old ways need breaking and that's one thing the Cards are good at. Just be careful what you wish for.

427 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2020

11 people are currently reading
199 people want to read

About the author

Tom Lloyd

47 books445 followers
Tom Lloyd was born in 1979 and showed almost no interest in writing until the age of eighteen. I blame the teachers myself.

Nevertheless he did eventually find himself with a long summer to spare before university, and decided to start a novel when it was suggested he get a job to pass the time. This tells you much of what there is to know about him. The rest can be derived from the fact that he first had the idea of writing a book to annoy a schoolfriend by getting published before him.

No, honestly; he's actually that shallow.

It was swiftly apparent that this was not the quick route to fame and fortune that he’d hoped for. The first sign of this was the realisation that being good at writing was required, but he managed to surprise everyone by not giving up on something he didn’t show immediate promise in.

Studying Politics and International Relations at Southampton University had very little appreciable effect on him, beyond giving him a couple of ideas for future novels, but that was largely due to spending most of those three years in London shacked up with the god-daughter of an Asian dictator. Upon leaving university he decided – along with what seemed like half of all other graduates, some of whom had had the temerity to study English – that doing “book stuff” sounded like a fun alternative to working out what sort of job he wanted to do. There was also the intriguing suggestion of literary talent being passed on by some osmosis-like process. As a result of a little work experience at Simon and Schuster - combined with some shameless flirting with the HR manager - he got a job as an editorial assistant on the Scribner list, which allowed him to mistype letters to a whole host of talented writers.

Certain luminary examples there made it clear that before he became a fantasy editor he was going to have to spend several years iron-cladding his liver. Towards this goal, he decamped to the A M Heath Literary Agency by way of Random House, which was silly because walking down Longacre would have been a lot quicker, to work in foreign rights while also freelancing for writersservices.com and constantly revising what was slowly becoming The Stormcaller.

A three year litany of madcap adventures in the crazy world of agenting ensued, but it would be far too time-consuming to detail any of that so suffice to say that his hangover cleared sufficiently one morning in 2004 for him to realise that he wasn’t quite so bad at writing now. Maybe there was something to this osmosis thing after all - although if that’s true Katie Fforde and Dave Hill might get a surprise at the effect they’d had.

Securing the services of John Richard Parker at MBA Literary Agents proved a surprisingly painless experience – despite being previously rejected by one of John’s colleagues, which just goes to show how persistent one has to be – and soon he was sat in the office of Jo Fletcher at Gollancz trying to persuade her how much of a geek he was. After four years as contracts manager at Blake Friedmann Literary Agency he decided he didn't like other authors that much so he swapped his dark corner of Camden for one at Atlantic Books where it quickly became apparent that he prefers winning arguments to scruples.

Writing part-time, also known as watching loads more TV, he also manages to play a little sport in between trips to the pub and battering his next book - into a semblance of shape.

http://tomlloyd.livejournal.com/ http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?...

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5 stars
48 (39%)
4 stars
54 (44%)
3 stars
15 (12%)
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4 (3%)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for K.V. Johansen.
Author 28 books139 followers
July 12, 2020
A fitting conclusion to the series. Higher stakes, both political and personal, for Lynx and the Cards; revelations of a bit more about the gods; explosions, deceptions, a few hangovers ... even some personal growth. Don't miss this! If you're coming new to the series, though, start with Stranger of Tempest, because although on the surface it might seem like a jump-in-anywhere sword and sorcery series of standalone adventures (substituting god-corpse-fuelled mage-guns for swords), in the midst of the non-stop action and banter of the mercenaries you're following this battered enemy (to most of his comrades) war veteran and former convict/POW/slave-labourer through a quiet, under-the-surface healing.
Profile Image for Daniel Kelly.
Author 2 books134 followers
November 24, 2020
'perfect.' His grin widened. 'Now - someone hold my beer'

First of all.. That cover is awesome. But a nice cover doesn't make a book, and Tom has carried that off brilliantly. I have been reading everything I could find by him since I randomly picked up his brilliant debut 'The Stormcaller' in chapters bookstore years ago and through his series he has never been less than amazing. This series is much different from his first two but shows a maturity in writing and an ability to bring humour to the pages. I am a big believer that the future will acknowledge me Lloyd as one of the best writers of our time.
35 reviews1 follower
October 24, 2020
Wow.

What started out one way ended in a completely different and that's a good thing. I am hoping there is a follow up novel planned, as I really want to see how the suggested last act plays out.
448 reviews12 followers
August 11, 2021
Fitting

I'm going with three and a half stars. As with the rest of the series, fast action, lots of killing and plenty of rowdy dialogue. What else would you expect from " the cards". This book wraps up the journey that has been in the making for a few years now, but the door has been left open just a bit for a possible new story. Not the best book in the series but a definitely must read to see how the cards fall.
214 reviews1 follower
November 30, 2020
A fine series ending

So far, the best series Lloyd has created. Characters well developed, not overly descriptive and an interesting storyline. Well done
436 reviews
February 23, 2022
ok probably 3.5. the story just got a little confusing when Tom tried to conclude the journey developed over the past three books. he did bring closure to the god fragment story but I just felt it was a little confusing. RIP Anatin. Tom Lloyd remains one of my favorite fantasy authors and I look forward to his next book!
Profile Image for Shane.
485 reviews
May 9, 2024
4.5/5 Stars. Fitting ending to a great series. Sad to see it come to an end. Great page turner to keep you up late into the night.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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