Publisher's Synopsis
"My name is Robert Mannford, and I saved the world by killing it," is the first line of the mysterious journal Wayran finds in the skeletal hand of a long dead madman buried deep beneath the twisting sands of the Wastes. Wayran's quest for answers has taken him deep into the desert aboard his uncle's airship when a sandstorm sweeps him and his brother, Matoh, into its depths where they crash into an otherworldly tower Wayran has only ever seen before in his dreams.During a burgeoning age of steam, steel, and new physics-based magic the paths of an invading empire, a brother destined to be a knight, a prince who harvests souls, a detective hot on a serial killer's trail, a princess who hears the Song of God, a girl raised to be a weapon struggling to control her awesome power, a young dock-rat with a strange new ability, and a dirt-poor musician with an autistic friend all collide as they find themselves embroiled in a clockwork of destinies ticking towards events which will change the world forever.Yet the madman's machines, long thought dead, are still watching, and Mannford's greatest creation, Kali, is waiting to deliver her judgment.Science, magic, quests, airships, swords, knights, technology and prophecy collide in this epic blend of steampunk post-apocalyptic fantasy.