The Three Worlds Cycle comprises a series of at least twelve books set on the three linked worlds of Santhenar, Aachan and Tallallame. The cycle details the struggle for survival between four human species: old humans, Aachim, Faellem and Charon, as well as a variety of other creatures, both intelligent and beastly (and some of the humans can be pretty beastly too!).

Most of the action takes place on Santhenar and occurs over a period of roughly two hundred and fifty years. The Three Worlds Cycle consists of The View from the Mirror Quartet, The Well of Echoes Quartet, and, yet to be written, The Song of the Tears Trilogy followed by a single novel (or possibly a trilogy formerly known as The Fate of the Children but at present untitled.

THE VIEW FROM THE MIRROR QUARTET

The View from the Mirror could be called a Darwinian fantasy. It's got nothing to do with the perennial (and sadly jaded) struggle of good vs evil. It's about the struggle for existence between four human species, each believing it has the better right to exist. Well, that's what Ian says - actually it's just an excuse for an enormous, action-packed adventure. The Quartet consists of:

1. A Shadow on the Glass
2. The Tower on the Rift
3. Dark is the Moon
4. The Way between the Worlds

A Shadow on the Glass

ONCE THERE WERE THREE WORLDS, each with their own human species. Then, fleeing out of the void came a fourth species, the Charon. Desperate, on the edge of extinction, they changed the balance between the worlds forever …

Karan, a sensitive with a troubled heritage, is forced to steal an ancient relic in repayment of a debt. It turns out to be the Mirror of Aachan, a twisted, deceitful thing that remembers everything it has ever seen.

At the same time, Llian, a brilliant chronicler, is expelled from his college for uncovering a perilous mystery. Thrown together by fate, Karan and Llian are hunted across a world at war, for the Mirror contains a secret that offers each species survival, or extinction!
View first chapter

The Tower on the Rift

WAR RAGES ACROSS SANTHENAR as Aachim, Faellem and old humans pursue the Mirror of Aachan. A desperate Tensor, leader of the Aachim people, flees with it into the wilderness, taking the brilliant young chronicler Llian with him. Only Karan can save him, though she's not sure that she can help herself. Tensor wants her dead, the other powers are hunting her for her sensitive talents, and Rulke the Charon broods over them all from his Nightland prison. The Twisted Mirror holds knowledge that the world can only dream about. How will Tensor use it in the final confrontation? Will Llian be seduced by it too? Or will the Mirror betray them all, in the end?
View first chapter

Dark is the Moon

RULKE THE GREAT BETRAYER is free at last, to use the deadly construct he has spent a thousand years perfecting. To succeed he needs just one thing - Karan's sensitive talent. Karan and her lover Llian are lost in the Nightland, in an alien palace that is collapsing around them. Only Rulke can open the gate and send them home to Santhenar, but Karan is terrified that he will corrupt Llian first. Yggur and Mendark, sworn enemies, struggle to tame the power of the rift. They must seal the gate before Rulke brings forth his construct. If they fail he will ravage the world. And if they succeed, Karan and Llian will be trapped in the Nightland for eternity.
View first chapter

The Way Between the Worlds

THERE IS A DARK FULL MOON on midwinter's day. The foretelling has come to pass. Rulke the Charon is unstoppable now. Karan is held captive in desolate Carcharon tower. Rulke plans to use her to find the Way between the Worlds. On the mountainside below, the allies await their fate. Karan's lover, Llian, is in chains, falsely accused of betraying her to the enemy. As the dark moon rises, Rulke begins to open the Way. If he succeeds, the world will be overwhelmed by the dread armies of the void. There is only one solution. Karan must be the sacrifice …
View first chapter

PUBLICATION DETAILS

The View from the Mirror Quartet (Penguin Australia) (paperback) http://www.penguin.com.au

1. A Shadow on the Glass (March 1998). 17th printing July 2007.
2. The Tower on the Rift (October 1998). 12th Printing, August 2006.
3. Dark is the Moon (April 1999). 12th printing August 2007.
4. The Way Between the Worlds. (Sept. 1999). 10th printing July 2007.

*(Includes the special two-in-one edition, May 2002)

The View from the Mirror Quartet (Orbit, UK)(paperback) http://www.orbitbooks.co.uk

1. A Shadow on the Glass (May 2000). 10th printing, November 2006.
2. The Tower on the Rift (November 2000). 6th printing May 2006.
3. Dark is the Moon (May 2001). 5th printing September 2006.
4. The Way Between the Worlds. (Dec. 2001). 5th printing, July 2006.

The View from the Mirror Quartet (Warner, US)(paperback) http://www.twbookmark.com

1. A Shadow on the Glass (July 2001). 2nd printing Nov 2002
2. The Tower on the Rift (January 2002).
3. Dark is the Moon (July 2002).
4. The Way Between the Worlds. (October 2002).

The View from the Mirror has been or is being published in translation by:

• Nakladatelstvi Navrat, Czech Republic
• Azbooka Publishers, Russia. Reprints '02 & '04 (maybe more)
• ISA Books, Warsaw
• Chang Jo In Publishing Co, Korea
• Luitingh-Sijthoff, Netherlands
• Bard, Bulgaria
• Wydawnictwo, Poland
• Lubbe, Germany

THE WELL OF ECHOES QUARTET

This series is set two centuries after the time of The View from the Mirror, when the world is greatly changed as a result of what happened at the end of The Way between the Worlds. It's a dark world where the entire society is regimented for just one thing: survival in the endless war against the winged lyrinx. The Well of Echoes Quartet consists of:

1. Geomancer
2. Tetrarch
3. Scrutator
4. Chimaera

Geomancer

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER THE FORBIDDING WAS BROKEN, Santhenar is locked in war with the lyrinx - intelligent, winged predators from the void who will do anything to gain their own world. Despite the development of battle clankers and mastery of the crystals that power them, humanity is losing. The enemy is destroying their nodes of power, one by one.

Tiaan, a lonely crystal worker in a clanker manufactory, is experimenting with an entirely new kind of crystal when she begins to have extraordinary visions. The crystal has woken her latent talent for geomancy, the most powerful of all the Secret Arts, and the most perilous. Geomancy is likely to kill her before she masters it. It is a talent that allies and enemies alike are desperate to control.

Falsely accused of sabotage by her rival, Irisis, Tiaan flees for her life. She is also hunted by the lyrinx, Ryll, who plans to use her in his dreadful flesh-forming experiments. Only geomancy can save her. Struggling to control her talent, Tiaan follows her visions all the way to Tirthrax, greatest peak on all the Three Worlds, where a nightmare awaits her ...
View first chapter

Tetrarch

SANTHENAR IS ON ITS KNEES. The war with the alien lyrinx drags on, and humanity is losing it, but there is worse to come. The Aachim have invaded with an irresistible force - a fleet of battle constructs. Cursing humanity for the loss of Aachan and his own clan, the embittered Aachim leader, Vithis, demands half the world in reparation. The council is in no position to resist. But even if they agree to his demands, can anything satisfy his thirst for vengeance?

Tiaan is in despair. Her life lies in ruins, and now she is being hunted through the abandoned city of Tirthrax by an implacable Nish, who blames her for the attack.

The future of the world rests in the hands of three flawed people: Tiaan, whose geomancy holds the key to the power that can save or destroy them; Nish, who has sworn to bring her to justice; and Irisis, whose great talents are hidden even from herself.
View first chapter

Scrutator

The node has failed, rendering humanity's battle clankers and the Aachim's constructs useless. The battle has been lost. Now hordes of alien lyrinx are swarming out of the tar pits of Snizort, intending to fall upon the survivors and destroy them to the last man.

Tiaan is held prisoner by a vengeful Vithis, who is determined to extract her geomantic secrets at any cost. For his failings, Nish has been cast out and branded a traitor while Irisis, accused of high treason, has been forced to flee for her life.

The fate of humanity is dependent on the survival of one wily old man, Scrutator Xervish Flydd. But Flydd has been blamed for the defeat at Snizort. His enemy, the vicious Chief Scrutator Ghorr, has expelled Flydd from the Council and stripped him of all rights. Now Flydd is condemned to die a brutish death as a slave, hauling ironclad clankers out of the battlefield mire until his heart bursts under the strain.
View first chapter

Chimaera

All resistance has been crushed. In a few minutes of overwhelming violence the Council's air-dreadnought fleet has destroyed Fiz Gorgo's defences. Xervish Flydd, Irisis and their allies have been condemned to die in a brutal aerial spectacle designed to reinforce Chief Scrutator Ghorr's power and majesty.

Nish is their one remaining hope. But Nish is trapped in a burning watchtower, and hunted by both the scrutators and his former lover, Ullii, whose twin brother he accidentally killed. Before Nish can hope to rescue his friends, he must convince Ullii to spare him, then overcome the most powerful cabal of mancers in the world as well as the Council's four hundred crack guards.

And even if he succeeds, to win the war the allies still have to defeat the scrutators and overthrow Nennifer, the corrupt Council's dread bastion, before the rampaging lyrinx overwhelm all Santhenar.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

The Well of Echoes Quartet (Penguin Australia)(Fantasy)(trade paperback),
http://www.penguin.com.au

1. Geomancer (September 2001); paperback September 2002. 4th printing August 2006.
2. Tetrarch (October 2002); paperback July 2003. 4th printing March 2007.
3. Scrutator (October 2003); paperback February 2004. 3rd printing September 2006.
4. Chimaera (October 2004); paperback ~ mid-2005. 2nd printing October 2006.

The Well of Echoes Quartet (Orbit UK)(Fantasy)(trade paperback),
http://www.orbitbooks.co.uk

1. Geomancer (September 2002); paperback July 2003. 5th printing February 2006.
2. Tetrarch (August 2003); paperback February 2004. 4th printing April 2007.
3. Alchymist (March 2004); paperback ~late November 2004. 3rd printing May 2006.
4. Chimaera (December 2004; reprinted January 2005); paperback June 2005. 4th printing August 2006.

The Well of Echoes is being published in translation by:

• Fantasy World, Greece
• Azbooka, Russia

THE SONG OF THE TEARS TRILOGY

1. Torments of the Traitor (UK: The Fate of the Fallen)
2. The Curse on the Chosen
3. The Destiny of the Dead

The three books of this series will be published in Australia and the UK at approximately yearly intervals from late 2006.

Torments of the Traitor/The Fate of the Fallen

After ten years of servitude, Nish is about to be released from the blackest prison of the maimed God-Emperor, Jal-Nish Hlar, his corrupt father. Jal-Nish holds the two sorcerous quicksilver tears, Gatherer and Reaper, and with them controls all of the Secret Art. All opposition having been crushed, he has begun to remake the world in his depraved image.

The only hope of overthrowing him lies in Nish, whom the oppressed peoples of the world see as a messianic figure, the Deliverer for, as Nish was dragged off to prison a decade ago, he wildly promised to return and cast down his father.

Unfortunately Nish is powerless and without allies. But worse, his father wants Nish to become his lieutenant and become as corrupt as he is. Jal-Nish offers Nish everything he has ever desired and, faced with the unbearable alternative of another ten years in prison, he isn't sure he can resist the temptation.

PUBLICATION DETAILS

The Song of the Tears Trilogy (Penguin Australia) (Fantasy) (trade paperback)
http://www.penguin.com.au

1. Torments of the Traitor (September 2006); paperback July 2007.

The Song of the Tears Trilogy (Orbit UK) (Fantasy) (trade paperback)
http://www.orbitbooks.co.uk

1. The Fate of the Fallen (September 2006); paperback June 2007.

The Curse on the Chosen

Click to view larger image.		Click to view larger image.
Australian cover		UK cover

[coming November 2007 (UK), December 2007 (Australia)]

The Destiny of the Dead

[coming November 2008 (UK), November 2008 (Australia)]

The Song of the Tears is also being published in translation by:

• Unicorn, Greece