Pretenders to the Throne of God

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

Arthur C. Clarke winner and Sunday Times bestseller returns to a world steeped in magic - and the Tyrant Philosophers' campaign to bring reason, logic and 'perfection' to it.

As the Palleseen's campaign to bring Perfection and Correctness to an imperfect world rages on, Eres Ffenegh - "the City on the Back of a Crab" - is the next state slated for conquest. But its citizens won't give up sovereignty easily.

The siege has dragged into winter and the defenders - both locals and Pal renegades - hold an uneasy alliance against the enemy at the gates, while the Pal army is looking over its shoulder for the next self-destructive dictate of their government back home.

Within the city, Devil Jack, a good man apprenticed to the notorious conjurer known as the Widow, is driven to bargaining with hell to get back what he's lost. Meanwhile Kiffel ea Leachan is the city's champion, a child of privilege who's just lost everything to the invaders. Both must try to survive the siege and make their own destinies in a world that's cut them loose.

Outside the city, Pal reinforcements have arrived to take the city, but it's the sort of help that might just damn them all...

THE TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS
1. City of Last Chances: portrait of Ilmar, a city under Palleseen occupation
2. House of Open Wounds: portrait of the Palleseen war machine at work.
3. Days of Shattered Faith: portrait of a kingdom consumed, piece-by-piece, by Palleseen diplomatic subterfuge.
3.1 Lives of Bitter Rain: a prequel novella to Days of Shattered Faith, portrait of a life in the Palleseen diplomatic corps.
4. Pretenders to the Throne of God: portrait of a city under siege.
5. The Grave of Perfection: will take us back to Ilmar, the 'City of Last Chances' where our story began.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781035914982
Published: February 2026

Number of pages: 512
Width: 146 mm
Height: 228 mm
Depth: 36 mm

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC