The Master of Samar

by Melissa Scott

Overview

Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling cursebreaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min'Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family's house and fortune, Irichels's main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family's losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them—if it's not already too late.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160922157
Publisher:	Candlemark & Gleam
Publication date:	06/05/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	399,872
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Star Wars Rebels, and the anime series gen:LOCK. She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death By Silver with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs’ Point and Death By Silver, as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her latest short story, “Sirens,” appeared in Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player’s Heart, came out in 2020. Her most recent solo novel, Water Horse, was published in 2021, and Fallen, sequel to 2018’s Finders, will be out in late 2023.

Editorial Reviews

Lambda Literary award winner Scott (Shadow Man) sets a solid mystery plot within an aristocratic, Victorian-esque commonwealth held together by magical curses. // Scott hits all the expected beats, and her dark magic system keeps the stakes high. Fans of Victorian fantasy will want to check this out.

Publishers Weekly

Intricate and elaborate scheming both civil and magical, in a wonderfully-realized city. I am in awe!

Blurb to Publisher - Ellen Kushner

Intrigue and bricolage. Complicated characters. Action and unpredictable mystery. This is exactly what I want in a fantasy, and Master of Samar delivers.

Blurb to Publisher - Sherwood Smith

//...a rousing and exciting story, and Melissa Scott is a master of the genre at her best. // The magical system is intricate and fascinating, and the last several chapters are unstoppable. I hope there's a sequel—I would love to visit this world again!

Blurb to Publisher - Jo Graham

In 1985, I picked up a new novel with the intriguing title Five-Twelfths of Heaven, a second novel by a writer new to me. I haven't stopped reading her since, because Melissa Scott is that good. The Master of Samar is one of her best.

Blurb to Publisher - Cynthia Ward