THE LAST ROAD
Gods of the Caravan Road, Book Five
Pyr, 2019. Cover by Jennifer Do.
When even the gods are dying, the hope of the world may lie in its most feared enemies.
A new god proclaimed as the All-Holy has arisen in the west and leads an army eastward, devouring the gods and goddesses of the lands between, forcibly converting their folk and binding their souls to himself. The very fabric of the world appears threatened by forces beyond the understanding of scholars and wizards alike. Even the great city of Marakand, where the roads of east and west converge, seems powerless to resist the All-Holy, though the devils Moth and Yeh-Lin and the assassin Ahjvar, undead consort of the god of distant Nabban, have come to stand with it. That may avail Marakand little, for the shapeshifting Blackdog, once a champion of the gods, follows obediently at the All-Holy’s heel and Lakkariss, the sword of the cold hells, is in his master’s hand.
Reviews
"... continues the lyrical masterclass of the other books and provides a fitting ending to the series. It's got all the elements of epic fantasy but something deeper too -- a sense of age, of history and landscape that most don't come close to. ... if Robert MacFarlane ever wrote an epic fantasy I'd be hoping it would be like this. It's poetic and cut through with veins of great sadness, gentle humour, humanity and stillness, but fire and fury too. With violence, horror and tragedy across the generations, it never loses the personal aspect -- never forgets its humanity and never descends into gratuitousness. It's simply on a higher level to the vast majority of fantasy books." ~ Tom Lloyd, author of The Twilight Reign and The God Fragments series