A thrilling re-imagining of a timeless tale.
'You must understand, my name was not written down. Those who say and sometimes write it use what form they care to. So the spellings sometimes differ greatly. So much so that it might seem as though I had many different names, but in reality I still have only one. And, like all true names, it was a word of power . . .'
It is that time known as the Dark Ages. The Romans have abandoned Britain's shores, leaving behind a country riven by terrible strife, warfare, superstition and wild magic. Born into this cruel world, Guinevere, daughter of a mighty pagan queen, is both a threat to her people and a prize to the dread, power-crazed sorcerer Merlin.
Sent into hiding, Guinevere grows up under the protection of a shape-shifting man-wolf and a cantankerous druid, watched over by dragons.
Yet through his dark arts, the malign, all-seeing Merlin tracks her down. For he knows her extraordinary destiny and will stop at nothing to prevent what has been foretold. He knows that should Guinevere become queen and Arthur king, they will bring a peace to this ravaged land that will leave him powerless, a shrivelled husk of a man in a weary cloak.
But Guinevere is no mere mortal. She has inherited dazzling powers of her own - powers she must learn to control, yet strong enough to rival Merlin's own. With Arthur trapped in a netherworld from which the only escape is seemingly death, Guinevere must face the sorcerer's wrath alone.
Summoning a magic she barely understands and ancient spirits who walked upon this earth when it was still young, she, who will one day sit upon the dragon throne, confronts her destiny . . .
Interlacing a keenly felt sense of history with soul-stirring fantasy, 'The Dragon Queen' - the first book in a magnificent trilogy - is an exciting, richly told and wonderfully subversive reworking of a legendary tale.
