The Serpent Bride (The Darkglass Mountain Trilogy, Book 1)

The Serpent Bride is the first book in the Darkglass Mountain trilogy, revisiting the tempestuous magical world of Tencendor with all it’s strange and wonderful inhabitants.Tencendor is no more; the cherished home of the Acharites, Avar and Icarii crumbled beneath the Widowmaker Sea five years ago.But the sacrifice of a continent may not save a world. The Timekeeper Demons were defeated, but a more ancient evil waits patiently for its own vengeance.Across the empty ocean, deep in the Outlands, The Coil – worshippers of the Snake God – divine a terrible future from the eviscerated entrails of a living human sacrifice. They must offer their precious arch priestess to the King of Escator, Maximilian Persimius, or face oblivion.In Escator, Maximilian must agree to a union with reviled Coil to or see his beloved kingdom fall into financial ruin, though the Outlands would turn against his small realm should they uncover his bride's origins.But the King of Escator has many reasons to fear the future, for his serpent bride is not the only secret he hides…

From Publishers Weekly

Set in a world evocative of ancient Egypt, the dark, sensuous first in a new fantasy series from Australian author Douglass picks up five years after the events in 2006's Crusader, the conclusion to her Wayfarer Redemption series. Lady Ishbel Brunelle, an archpriestess of the Order of the Coil (whose members use the bowels of living men to foretell the future), is ordered by the order's Great Serpent, who appears as a speaking apparition, to marry Maximilian Persimius, king of the coastal kingdom of Escator. Despite a terrifying childhood vision that warned her of such an eventuality, she agrees and quickly becomes pregnant. Meanwhile, Kanubai, an evil godlike being, stirs beneath the Darkglass Mountain, a four-sided pyramid in the land of Isembaard ruled by the tyrant Isaiah. Kanubai convinces Isaiah's insane brother to deliver a sacrifice and an ancient artifact that will free him from the mountain. Most of the characters are drowning in emotional quagmires, which hopefully future installments will dispel. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Sara Douglass has worked as a nurse and has a Ph.D. in early modern European history. Her first fantasy adventure, The Axis Trilogy, had an overwhelming response from readers (Starman won the 1996 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel). This was followed by the bestselling Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy, and other works of both epic and historical fantasy. Sara lives in an 1880s-era house, Nonsuch, in Hobart, Tasmania.

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