Praise for the Crown of Stars series: "In the Jaran series, Elliott proved herself good at setting up conflict on a grand scale . Here she creates a complex fantasy world with intriguing parallels to European history, colorful characters, and plenty of action and magic." -- Locus "The saga's world is extremely well built, its pacing is brisk enough to keep the pages fluttering. This certainly could become one of the best multivolume fantasies --fans, take note!" -- Booklist "Elliott has a gift for creating grim, dark settings as well as swashbuckling action scenes (both magical and material) worthy of Rafael Sabatini. This is a splendid piece of intelligent entertainment ." -- Publishers Weekly "A solidly engrossing addition to a worthwhile series." -- Kirkus "Kate Elliott, an excellent fantasist, writes lush and lyrical scenes and uses her characters to scale down cosmic events to a human scale." -- Midwest Book Review "Ms.

Elliott continues to weave an elegantly intricate tapestry of full-bodied characters who will fascinate and intrigue readers up to the very last page."-- Romantic Times Magazine (now RT Reviews ) " Strong plotting, thorough world building and sound characterization and character development make this novel a must-purchase for those collections that have invested in the rest of the series."-- VOYA "Elliott has created a world with depth and color and peopled it with a large cast of characters, all poised on the brink of a cataclysmic conclusion."-- SF Chronicle "This is a very good climax to a very long series. The writing is clear and excellent , the universe is interesting, the politics and warfare believable."-- SFRevu "Elliott has developed as real a fantasy realm as any writer working in the genre , and the very complexity of the story contributes to its verisimilitude."-- Chronicle.