The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence (English) Paperback Book

Description: The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence Includes an excerpt from The Wheel of Osheim FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description From the international bestselling author of the Broken Empire trilogy comes the second book of the Red Queens War... After harrowing adventure and near death, Prince Jalan Kendeth and the Viking Snorri ver Snagason find themselves in possession of Lokis key, an artefact capable of opening any door and sought by the most dangerous beings in the Broken Empire—including the Dead King.Jal wants only to return home to his wine, women, and song, but Snorri has his own purpose for the key: to find the very door into death, throw it wide, and bring his family back into the land of the living.And as Snorri prepares for his quest to find deaths door, Jals grandmother, the Red Queen, continues to manipulate kings and pawns toward an endgame of her own design... Author Biography Mark Lawrence is a research scientist working on artificial intelligence. He is a dual national with both British and American citizenship, and has held secret-level clearance with both governments. At one point, he was qualified to say, "This isnt rocket science—oh wait, it actually is." He is the author of the Broken Empire trilogy (Prince of Thorns, King of Thorns, and Emperor of Thorns), the Red Queens War trilogy (Prince of Fools, The Liars Key, and The Wheel of Osheim) and the Book of the Ancestor series (Red Sister). Review Praise for Mark Lawrence and The Red Queens War"Mark Lawrence is the best thing to happen to fantasy in recent years."—New York Times bestselling author Peter V. Brett"Lawrences epic fantasy is a great summer read, full of humor, revenge, and perils that this warrior-and-coward duo must evade in order [to] save their kingdoms and themselves."—The Washington Post"Exciting action and quick-witted dialog make it a fantastic summer page-turner."—Library Journal (starred review)"Jalan Kendeth is a fine addition to this Loki-like roster of tricksters, knaves, and cowards: heroes and antiheroes we love to hate and hate to love...Mark Lawrences growing army of fans will relish this rollicking new adventure and look forward to the next one."—The Daily Mail"As richly told as the earlier trilogy: The author makes this place, a post-cataclysm earth of the far future, feel as real as any place youve ever visited. For fans of the Broken Empire series and readers who enjoy a good, epic-sized fantasy story (readers of, say, George R. R. Martin), this is a must-read."—Booklist"Shrewd Jalan and honorable Snorri make a marvelous team, lightening a very dark story with wry humor. The brisk adventure and black magic will leave readers eager for the next chapter in the series."—Publishers Weekly Review Quote Praise for Mark Lawrence and The Red Queens War Excerpt from Book PROLOGUE Two men in a room of many doors. One tall in his robes, stern, marked with cruelty and intelligence, the other shorter, very lean, his hair a shock of surprise, his garb a changing motley confusing the eye. The short man laughs, a many-angled sound as likely to kill birds in flight as to bring blossom to the bough. "I have summoned you!" The tall man, teeth gritted as if still straining to hold the other in place, though his hands are at his side. "A fine trick, Kelem." "You know me?" "I know everyone." A sharp grin. "Youre the door-mage." "And you are?" "Ikol." His clothes change, tattered yellow checks on blue where before it was scarlet fleur de lis on grey. "Olik." He smiles a smile that dazzles and cuts. "Loki, if you likey." "Are you a god, Loki?" No humour in Kelem, only command. Command and a great and terrible concentration in stone-grey eyes. "No." Loki spins, regarding the doors. "But Ive been known to lie." "I called on the most powerful--" "You dont always get what you want." Almost sing-song. "But sometimes you get what you need. You got me." "You are a god?" "Gods are dull. Ive stood before the throne. Wodin sits there, old one-eye, with his ravens whispering into each ear." Loki smiles. "Always the ravens. Funny how that goes." "I need--" "Men dont know what they need. They barely know what they want. Wodin, father of storms, god of gods, stern and wise. But mostly stern. Youd like him. And watching--always watching--oh the things that he has seen!" Loki spins to take in the room. "Me, Im just a jester in the hall where the world was made. I caper, I joke, I cut a jig. Im of little importance. Imagine though . . . if it were I that pulled the strings and made the gods dance. What if at the core, if you dug deep enough, uncovered every truth . . . what if at the heart of it all . . . there was a lie, like a worm at the centre of the apple, coiled like Oroborus, just as the secret of men hides coiled at the centre of each piece of you, no matter how fine you slice? Wouldnt that be a fine joke now?" Kelem frowns at this nonsense, then with a quick shake of his head returns to his purpose. "I made this place. From my failures." He gestures at the doors. Thirteen, lined side by side on each wall of an otherwise bare room. "These are doors I cant open. You can leave here, but no door will open until every door is unlocked. I made it so." A single candle lights the chamber, dancing as the occupants move, their shadows leaping to its tune. "Why would I want to leave?" A goblet appears in Lokis hand, silver and overflowing with wine as dark and red as blood. He takes a sip. "I command you by the twelve arch-angels of--" "Yes, yes." Loki waves away the conjuring. The wine darkens until its a black that draws the eye and blinds it. So black that the silver tarnishes and corrupts. So black it is nothing but the absence of light. And suddenly its a key. A black glass key. "Is that . . . ?" Theres a hunger in the door-mages voice. "Will it open them?" "I should hope so." Loki spins the key around his fingers. "What key is that? Not Acherons? Taken from heaven when--" "Its mine. I made it. Just now." "How do you know it will open them?" Kelems gaze sweeps the room. "Its a good key." Loki meets the mages eyes. "Its every key. Every key that was and is, every key that will be, every key that could be." "Give it to--" "Wheres the fun in that?" Loki walks to the nearest door and sets his fingers to it. "This one." Each door is plain and wooden but when he touches it this door becomes a sheet of black glass, unblemished and gleaming. "This is the tricky one." Loki sets his palm to the door and a wheel appears. An eight-spoked wheel of the same black glass, standing proud of the surface, as if by turning it one might unlock and open the door. Loki doesnt touch it. Instead he taps his key to the wall beside it and the whole room changes. Now it is a high vault, clean lines, walls of poured stone, a huge and circular silver-steel door in the ceiling. The light comes from panels set into the walls. A corridor leads off, stretching further than the eye can see. Thirteen silver-steel arches stand around the margins of the vault, each a foot from the wall, each filled with a shimmering light, as if moonbeams dance across water. Save for the one before Loki, which is black, a crystal surface fracturing the light then swallowing it. "Open this door and the world ends." Loki moves on, touching each door in turn. "Your death lies behind one of these other doors, Kelem." The mage stiffens then sneers. "God of tricks they--" "Dont worry." Loki grins. "Youll never manage to open that one." "Give me the key." Kelem extends his hand but makes no move toward his guest. "What about that door?" Loki looks up at the circle of silver-steel. "You tried to hide that one from me." Kelem says nothing. "How many generations have your people lived down here in these caves, hiding from the world?" "These are not caves!" Kelem bridles. He pulls back his hand. "The world is poisoned. The Day of a Thousand Suns--" "--was two hundred years ago." Loki waves his key carelessly at the ceiling. The vast door groans, then swings in on its hinges, showering earth and dust upon them. It is as thick as a man is tall. "No!" Kelem falls to his knees, arms above his head. The dust settles on him, making an old man of him. The floor is covered with soil, with green things growing, worms crawl, bugs scurry, and high above them, through a long vertical shaft, a circle of blue sky burns. "There, Ive opened the most important door for you. Go out, claim what you can before it all goes. There are others repopulating from the east." Loki looks around as if seeking an exit of his own. "No need to thank me." Kelem lifts his head, rubbing the dirt from his eyes, leaving them red and watering. "Give me the key." His voice a croak. "Youll have to look for it." "I command you to . . ." But the key is gone, Loki is gone. Only Kelem remains. Kelem and his failures. ONE Petals rained down amid cheers of adoration. Astride my glorious charger at the head of Red Marchs finest cavalry unit, I led the way along the Street of Victory toward the Red Queens palace. Beautiful women strained to escape the crowd and throw themselves at me. Men roared their approval. I waved-- Bang. Bang. Bang. My dream tried to shape the hammering into something that would fit the story it was telling. Ive a good imagination and for a moment everything held together. I waved to the highborn ladies adorning each balcony. A manly smirk for my sour-faced brothers sulking at the back of-- Bang! Bang! Bang! The tall houses of Vermillion began to crumble, the crowd started to thin, faces blurred. BANG! BANG! BANG! "Ah hell." I opened my eyes and rolled from the furs warmth into the freezing gloom. "Spring they call this!" I struggled shivering into a pair of trews and hurried down the stairs. The tavern room lay strewn with empty tankards, full drunks, toppled benches, and upended tables. A typical morning at the Three Axes. Maeres sniffed around a scatter of bones by the hearth, wagging his tail as I staggered in. BANG! BANG-- "All right! All right! Im coming." Someone had split my skull open with a rock during the night. Either that or I had a hell of a hangover. Damned if I knew why a prince of Red March had to answer his own front door, but Id do anything to stop that pounding tearing through my poor head. I picked a path through the detritus, stepping over Erik Three-Teeths ale-filled belly to reach the door just as it reverberated from yet another blow. "God damn it! Im here!" I shouted as quietly as I could, teeth gritted against the pain behind my eyes. Fingers fumbled with the lock bar and I pulled it free. "What?" And I hauled the door back. "What?" I suppose with a more sober and less sleep-addled mind I might have judged it better to stay in bed. Certainly that thought occurred to me as the fist caught me square in the face. I stumbled back, bleating, tripped over Erik, and found myself on my arse staring up at Astrid, framed in the doorway by a morning considerably brighter than anything I wanted to look at. "You bastard!" She stood hands on hips now. The brittle light fractured around her, sending splinters into my eyes but making a wonder of her golden hair and declaring in no uncertain terms the hour-glass figure that had set me leering at her on my first day in Trond. "W-what?" I shifted my legs off Eriks bulging stomach, and shuffled backward on my behind. My hand came away bloody from my nose. "Angel, sweetheart--" "You bastard!" She stepped after me, hugging herself now, the cold following her in. "Well--" I couldnt argue against "bastard," except technically. I put my hand in a puddle of something decidedly unpleasant and got up quickly, wiping my palm on Maeres, whod come over to investigate, tail still wagging despite the violence offered to his master. "Hedwig ver Sorren?" Astrid had murder in her eyes. I kept backing away. I might have half a foot over her in height but she was still a tall woman with a powerful right arm. "Oh, you dont want to believe street talk, my sweets." I swung a stool between us. "Its only natural that Jarl Sorren would invite a prince of Red March to his halls once he knew I was in town. Hedwig a Details ISBN0425268810 Author Mark Lawrence Short Title LIARS KEY Language English ISBN-10 0425268810 ISBN-13 9780425268810 Media Book Pages 496 DEWEY FIC Series The Red Queens War Year 2016 Series Number 2 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2016-05-31 NZ Release Date 2016-05-31 US Release Date 2016-05-31 Place of Publication New York UK Release Date 1900-01-01 Publisher Penguin Putnam Inc Format Paperback Publication Date 2016-05-31 Imprint Ace Books Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:97975993;

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