Lenght: medium

“This Will Be a Quick War”

Twenty years ago, Hanlin and Thorem fought side by side as mercenaries in the Border Wars, hired by rich landowners and the settled business interests to push the western frontier farther into lands held by the westlings—the kirangee, the People, who have lived there for untold generations.

Now the business interests intend to encroach still farther on the territory held by the People. Hired by the wealthy Lady Sil of Tidon to assist in this enterprise, Thorem cannot convince Hanlin to join him on another campaign. Following the earlier battles, Hanlin had gone to live with the kirangee, learned some of their ways, married a kirangia woman—and has no interest in making war against them again.

But Hanlin’s and Thorem’s destinies will nevertheless become entangled once more as both are drawn back to the frontier that saw their earlier glories—and failures.

David C. Smith, recognized for a career spent writing sword-and-sorcery and weird fiction, here offers an insightful, often brutal modern novel that vividly brings to life the ferocious wills and dark hearts of the skilled mercenaries and the redoubtable kirangee. The People will raise the sorcery of their ancestors to defend their land at all costs, but Lady Sil will not be deterred, for as Thorem tells his old friend, “As mothers breed sons, the sons breed war.”