In the far-distant future a flooded and shattered Earth is governed by the iron hand of the Martian Matriarchy. Martian warrior Dreams-of-War is despatched to Earth to guard a young girl called Lunae from an unknown threat. The clone of an extraordinary heritage, Lunae ages with unnatural speed and has the special talent of being able to alter time.
At the half-ruined city of Fragrant Harbour where Lunae resides with her malignant grandmothers and a member of the genetically modified race known as the kappa, Dreams-of-War encounters a host of intrigues centring on the sinister presence of an alien mission station nearby. When her protégé is nearly assassinated, the Martian warrior is forced to flee with Lunae to the flooded northern islands of what was once Japan. But then the child and the kappa go missing en route, leaving Dreams-of-War determined to return to the plains of Mars in order to discover the truth about Martian rule over Earth, and the nature of all the secrets behind it . . .
'Places Liz Williams in the first rank of visionary science fiction writers' Charles Stross
'Liz Williams is this generations answer to Margaret Atwood and Sheri Tepper' Chris Moriarty
- ISBN10 0330426907
- ISBN13 9780330426909
- Publish Date 17 February 2006 (first published 1 September 2004)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 June 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Tor
- Edition Unabridged edition
- Format Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
- Pages 480
- Language English