Mystic and Rider

The inventive national bestselling author of the Samaria novels returns with the first book in a stunning new fantasy saga. Award-winning author Sharon Shinn has been hailed as "the most promising and original writer of fantasy to come along since Robin McKinley" by Peter S. Beagle. Now, she weaves a new world wrought with magic and mayhem, in which the fate of a troubled land may rest in the hands of those few who would remain loyal to their king-and each other... In the land of Gillengaria, ill feeling toward magic and those who use it rises to a dangerous level. The king dispatches the Mystic woman Senneth on a journey to see first-hand how dire the situation is. Accompanying her are Shapeshifters and Riders-unlikely allies who will enter a land under the sway of a fanatical cult that would purge Gillengaria of all magic users. They will face death-and worse. And they will come to realize that their only hope of survival lies in standing together, Mystic and Rider, side by side.

Sharon Shinn is a journalist who works for a trade magazine. Her first novel, The Shapechanger's Wife, was selected by Locus as the Best First Fantasy Novel of 1995. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer, and was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has lived in the Midwest most of her life.