Hoping for a better life, five war veterans colonize an abandoned island. They take with them everything they could possibly need - food, clothes, tools, weapons, even wives.

The colonists feel sure that their friendship will keep them together. But an unanticipated discovery shatters their dream and replaces it with a very different one. Only then do they begin to realize that they've brought with them rather more than they bargained for.

For one of them, it seems, has been hiding a terrible secret from the rest of the company. And when the truth begins to emerge, it soon becomes clear that the war is far from over.

Reviews

Praise for KJ Parker:

• 'I was hooked from the very first scene … these fantasies (without a whit of magic) explore the human condition and reveal it all, brain, heart, guts and bowels, with a startling precision' Locus, 'Thoroughly engrossing' Focus, 'Devices and Desires is as complicated, efficient, and well constructed as its protagonist's well-oiled machines' Starburst, 'A bravura display of intricate storytelling and artfully doled out revelations' SFX

Trade Paperback

Published 02/10/2008