The Winter King - The Sabazel Saga, #2

First print-published by Ace Books in 1986.

What if an Amazon queen had a love affair with Alexander the Great?

What if their son had to defend his lands from the Mongol Horde?

What if his sister was the priestess of a bull-cult on Crete?

What if her son started the Trojan War -- between India and Persia?

The Sabazel series, four alternate-history, gonzo-mythology epic fantasy novels: Sabazel, The Winter King, Shadow Dancers, Wings of Power.

The Winter King

In a world rooted in Mediterranean history and mythology, armies clash, magicks compete, and the gods set their pawns onto the game board. Andrion, son of an Amazon queen and a world-conquering warrior, was named Beloved of the Gods. But divine love demands of him a test of strength. When his father's empire is betrayed and conquered by barbarians, Andrion flees to his mother's tiny realm. There, in the midst of defeat, he must mortgage his innocence, assess his loyalties, and try to be the warrior his father once was.

Meanwhile, Tembujin, the son of the barbarian Khan, finds in the midst of victory that betrayal is not reserved for his enemy, and that perhaps he doesn't want to be the warrior his father once was. Only by forming an uneasy alliance can the two princes earn their patrimonies, inch by inch and heart by heart. And the women surrounding them have more than a little say in both victory and defeat.

Lilith Saintcrow, author of the Dante Valentine series, on Sabazel, Book One: ". . .I love this
book. A functioning Amazonian society with a kickass queen, navigating the waters of political alliance and war? Sign my silly butt up. This is one of those books I read every few years, and I'm always pleasantly surprised by how good it is each time."

"...a marvelous sense of romantic adventure ...unusually literate, intelligent and respectfully aware of the epic tradition...strong characterizations complimented by an evocative magical
poetry in the imagery...plausibility in action and locale...use of Classical background assured and distinctive...firmly grounded in reality, tradition and myth."—Robert Hadji, Borderland

A remarkably fine and thoroughly engrossing book.—Patricia C. Wrede

Original, imaginative, and believable.—Elizabeth Ann Scarborough.

A compelling story. I read it through the night.—R.A. MacAvoy