Best selling author Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 30 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, in which she created the Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of ancient fighters modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes. She created, orchestrated, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell, writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, The Little Helliad, with Chris Morris. She wrote the bestselling Silistra Quartet in the 1970s, including High Couch of Silistra, The Golden Sword, Wind from the Abyss, and The Carnelian Throne. This quartet had more than four million copies in Bantam print alone, and was translated into German, French, Italian, Russian and other languages. In the 1980s, Baen Books released a second edition of this landmark series. The third edition is the Author’s Cut edition, newly revised by the author for Perseid Press. Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.
Janet says: ‘People often ask what book to read first. I recommend “I, the Sun” if you like ancient history; “The Sacred Band,” a novel, if you like heroic fantasy; “Lawyers in Hell” if you like historical fantasy set in hell; “Outpassage” if you like hard science fiction; “High Couch of Silistra” if you like far-future dystopian or philosophical novels. I am most enthusiastic about the definitive Perseid Press Author’s Cut editions, which I revised and expanded.’
The Golden Sword
She had the power to create planets. The sixty carved bones of the Yris-tera foretold her ancient fate. Her heritage of power took her beyond time and space and stole from her the one man she loved. Enslaved on the planet Silistra tomorrow's most beautiful courtesan unleashes the powers of the gods.
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Mage Blood
Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons prepare to take the Wizard War to the Mages of Wizardwall.
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Wake of the Riddler
The immortalized cavalry commander, Tempus, leaves Sanctuary in the hands of Straton, the witch-cursed Stepson; his partner Critias; Sync of the Rankan 3rd Commando, and Kama, Tempus's daughter.
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A Man and His God
In this canonical short novel, the Sacred Band begins when Abarsis, Slaughter Priest, brings his Sacred Band to Tempus and dies in his arms. In this foundation story, Tempus's the Sacred Band of Stepsons is formed from love and death....
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I, The Sun
From palace coups in the lost city of Hattusas to treachery in the Egyptian court of Tutankhamun, I, the Sun, the saga of the Hittite King Suppiluliumas, rings with authenticity and the passion of a world that existed fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ. They called him Great King, Favorite of the Storm God, the Valiant. He conquered more than forty nations and brought fear and war to the very doorstep of Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt, but he could not conquer the one woman he truly loved.
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Outpassage
Sgt. "Det" Cox has just spent three years under psych observation on Earth; now that he's out-system, he isn't about to tell anyone he's seeing aliens again. Paige Barnett has lost everything, even her name, because she knows too much about the rebellion spreading through the Earth-Space mining colonies.
Together Cox and Barnett stumble upon the mystery at the revolution's heart and learn why the rebels are willing to die for it.
Is their discovery humanity's worst threat or greatest gift? The authorities are willing to destroy whole planets to keep the revolution's secret from reaching Earth... What's to stop them from destroying two people?
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High Couch of Silistra
“We are all bound,” is the great truth of Silistra: Bound by biological necessity and genetics, the men and women of Silistra struggle to sort Nature from Nurture – where Nature always wins. Welcome to Silistra, a glimpse of a far distant future wherein a civilization proclaims the greatest feat an individual can perform is to produce one child, yet distrusts the sciences that brought them to verge of extinction.
Here women and men coexist uneasily in a society ravaged by war, technology, and infertility, each vying for power, each seeking dominion over one another. Be warned, if your tastes run to simplistic plots, throbbing organs, swooning damsels or kick-boxing women in men’s armor, Silistra may be too challenging. Feminists, misogynists, misanthropes, or fans of political diatribe, this is not the book for you.
High Couch of Silistra, first of the notorious Silistra Quartet, brings us to a realm where thought alters probability, where creativity is inextricably linked to the urge to own and dominate, and where the universe itself is amenable to a focused mind.
Rooted deeply in humanity’s mythic past yet unaware of the planet Earth, High Couch of Silistra begins one woman’s mythic quest for self-knowledge – with surprising results.
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The Fish the Fighters and the Song-Girl
After the Battle of Meridian . . . New blood and old warriors face unforeseen challenges as one war ends in triumph and another conflict looms. Stories you'll love to hear again and stories you've been hoping to hear for the first time in a brand-new Sacred Band anthology that takes the Stepsons where they've never been before... Tales of risk and glory, past, present and future, among the Sacred Band of Stepsons cavalry in The Fish the Fighter and the Song-girl, the latest Sacred Band novelized anthology, including the new title novella, 'The Fish the Fighters and the Song-girl.' Tempus and his Sacred Band won the battle of their dreams, but now the time has come to count the cost and face the consequences in fifteen tales, old and new, of the iconic Sacred Band of Stepsons, including the last six classic Sacred Band stories from the million-copy bestselling shared universe of Thieves' World® and nine new adventures available nowhere else.
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Wind From the Abyss
Wind from the Abyss is the third volume in Janet Morris' classic Silistra Quartet, continuing one woman's quest for self-realization in a distant tomorrow.
Aristocrat. Outcast. Picara. Slave. Ruler ....
Praise for Janet Morris' Silistra Quartet:
"The amazing and erotic adventures of the most beautiful courtesan in tomorrow's universe." -- Fred Pohl
"Engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure." -- Charles N. Brown, Locus Magazine.
The best single example of prostitution used in fantasy is Janet Morris' Silistra series." -- Anne K. Kahler, The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine.
This Perseid Press Author's Cut Edition is revised and expanded by the author and presented in a format designed to enhance your reading experience with larger, easy-to-read print, more generous margins, and covers designed for these premium editions.
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