The Wars of Light and Shadow
11 primary works Complete
Book 1
Athera is beseiged by the Mistwraith, which blights the land and dims the mysteries still guarded by the last fugitives of the old bloodlines.
Hope springs from the ashes of a dark age: the paired gifts of two brothers - one dark, one fair, raised on opposite sides of a relentless war and both heirs to a broken legacy - may challenge the Mistwraith's invasion, though at brutal cost...
Arithon, Master of Shadow, musician and mage, commands the power of illusion and darkness. Taken prisoner in battle, his fate falls to his half-brother, Prince Lysaer, endowed with the gift of light through the mother they share - and legitmate son of a king betrayed by her choice to father Arithon by his mortal enemy.
Vengeful fury drives the king to banish both Lysaer and Arithon to the troubled realms of Athera beyond the Worldsend Gate.
The two exiles are thrown together by hatred and spilled blood - then bound by destiny to champion Athera's sundered heritage. The highest stakes ride the backlash of their conflict - they must reforge their adverse ideals into balance, or destroy the etheric grace of a culture all but lost to antiquity.
A subtle and intricate tale of morality and difference, justice versus compassion, told with epic scope and real magic, Curse of the Mistwraith remains a modern classic of the fantasy genre.
Book 2
A powerful, layered weaving of myth, prose and pure imagination – The Ships of Merior continues an epic fantasy series perfect for enthusiasts of The Dark Tower and Earthsea.
The second volume of Janny Wurts's incomparable series following Arithon and Lysaer, two brothers forced to take opposite sides in a relentless conflict.
After defeating the malevolent fog that blighted Athera, Arithon and Lysaer battle the throes of the Mistwraith's insidious retribution: a curse set upon them at their moment of triumph compels them each to seek the other's downfall.
Lysaer, the charming and charismatic Lord of Light, drives his brother out of hiding and hounds Arithon with a massive army at his command. Meanwhile Arithon, Master of Shadow, the sensitive mage who prefers music to violence, must take to the seas to evade capture and strike back against Lysaer's mighty war host.
Locked into lifelong enmity, the brothers’ pursuit of each other's destruction will test the foundations of human morailty, even as threat to the world’s deepest magic rides on the outcome.
THE SHIPS OF MERIOR weaves a rich and complicated tapestry, bringing readers deeper into the mystical world of Athera. Striking a balance between epic scope and intricate subtlety, the Wars of Light and Shadow is a must-read series for readers of intelligent fantasy.
Book 3
Book 4
Where there is light, there must always be shadow… The fourth volume in Janny Wurts’s spectacular epic fantasy, now re-released with a striking new cover design along with the rest of the series.
The schism began with two half-brothers empowered to subdue a Mistwraith. In revenge it cursed them to a life of perpetual conflict. Each believes absolutely in his cause, and loathes the other for opposing it…
Lysaer, Prince of the Light – a charismatic leader sworn to set humanity free from sorcerous oppression. He claims divine power to safeguard his people from an enemy he is convinced will destroy them.
Arithon, Master of Shadow – a trained mage who wishes for nothing but to defuse war, and search out the vanished old races who hold the key to restore the world’s shattered peace.
When Koriani enchantresses join forces with Lysaer, new intrigues upset Arithon’s hard-won autonomy. Faction is set against faction, heart against heart, and the scene is set for an explosive recurrence of war. The curse of the Mistwraith echoes eternal…
Book 5
Book 6
Where there is light, there must always be shadow… The fourth volume in Janny Wurts’s spectacular epic fantasy, now re-released with a striking new cover design along with the rest of the series.
The curse that hangs over the Master of Shadow, Arithon, and Lord of Light, Lysaer, is drawing the two half-brothers ever closer towards direct conflict. For the Natural Balance to be maintained, the two must never fight. If they do, one is sure to perish and the Mistwraith will regain its evil power over their world.
Even now, Lysaer – convinced of his own godhead and aided by the treacherous Koriani Sisterhood – is tracking Arithon the Masterbard through the snows and wastes of the winter-locked mountains and the Barrens of Daon Ramon. Arithon is tortured by the knowledge that for the sake of future generations he must not be killed, no matter the cost of others’ lives now. Fighting valiantly to prevent unnecessary suffering, he strikes out on his own; but he is injured and failing fast.
Meanwhile, the ancient Paravians are stirring, summoned by trespassers on their sacred domain; and the Fellowship of Seven are battling on many other fronts, as the Mistwraith’s wards begin to break, and khadrim and free wraiths roam the land…
Book 7
Book 8
The spellbinding final instalment of The Alliance of Light.
Though Athera may be free, the fight is far from over…
The heartstopping conclusion to the Alliance of Light series brings Lysaer's army of Light to besiege the great citadel of Alestron. Master of Shadow, Arithon, with barely a moment's recuperation from his victory over the necromancers, has discovered that young Jeynsa s'Valerient whom he has sworn to protect, has joined the ranks of his disowned allies within the threatened citadel. Worse, following a failed rescue attempt, his beloved Elaira, his double, Fionn Areth, and the spellbinder Dakar are also trapped within Alestron's walls. The chancy wiles of Davien the betrayer must spirit Arithon across the enemy lines to attempt a bold and perilous rescue mission.
Arithon must seek the heartcore of his talent, even while embroiled in a savage battle against those he has vowed to protect. But treachery strikes from deep within the duke's ranks. Lysaer's fanatics will be unleashed to claim their bloody revenge. With the Fellowship Sorcerers in mortal danger, and all under threat from a collapsing grimward, Davien the betrayer is unable to intercede to save his colleagues and so will be forced to invoke the dire terms of an ancient and most secretive bargain.
Arithon stands alone at the hour of reckoning as the true purpose of the Koriani enchantresses becomes, at long last fully, unveiled – with the covetous Prime Matriarch now poised to snatch a prize, a prize beyond that of merely integrity and life…
Book 9
The long-awaited beginning of the fourth story arc - Sword of the Canon - in the epic fantasy series, the Wars of Light and Shadow.
Betrayed and double-crossed, Arithon s'Ffalenn is held captive by the Order of the Koriathain. The desperate Fellowship Sorcerers have gambled the weal of Athera and forced through the perilous bargain that spared him, as the last Prince of Rathain, and their sole hope of unity. To suspend the Prime Matriarch's decree of execution, Arithon lives only to battle Marak's horde of free wraiths, unleashed one by one from the shielding grip of the star wards.
But on the day the last wraith is redeemed, the inflexible terms sealed by Dakar's oath of debt will come to be forfeit…
Against a world backdrop, in which the Religion of Light has undergone schism, the zealot True Sect's canon grips Tysan, its high priesthood stands consumed by its thwarted ambition: to conquer Havish, last crown bastion and backbone of order that secures the terms of Paravian survival. Now Lord Mayor of Etarra, Lysaer s'Ilessid must fight the pull of the Mistwraith's curse, and battle for sanity to uphold his just ethic. Another young defender will stand at his side, newly sworn by the Sorcerer's auspices.
As Arithon's life once again becomes the fulcrum that shifts the game board, Elaira's choice might save or break the unstable future; while at large and answerable to no mortal law, Davien and the dragon that holds his service throw in the wild card no one predicts…
Book 10
The long-awaited second book of the fourth story arc – Sword of the Canon – in the epic fantasy series, the Wars of Light and Shadow.
Lysaer’s unstable integrity lies under threat of total downfall, and as his determined protector, Daliana will face the most frightening decision of her young life.
Arithon, Master of Shadow, is marked for death and still hunted, when his critical quest to recover his obscured past entangles him in a web of deep intrigue and ancient perils beyond his imagining.
Elaira’s urgent pursuit of the Biedar Tribes’ secret embroils her in the terrible directive of the Fellowship Sorcerers, while Dakar — the Mad Prophet — confronts the hard reckoning for the colossal mistake of his misspent past, and Tarens is steered by a destiny far from his crofter’s origins.
The penultimate volume of The Wars of Light and Shadow will touch the grand depths of Athera’s endowment, and deliver the thrilling finale of arc IV, the Sword of the Canon.
War, blood, magic, mystery – and the most hidden powers of all – will stand or fall on their hour of unveiling.
Book 11
The hugely anticipated final volume of The Wars of Light and Shadow brings this widely acclaimed, masterful epic fantasy series to its powerful, earth-shattering close.
In the final battle of Light against Shadow, warring factions prepare to meet the bare fist of Arithon’s fury, sparked by the execution of the innocent murdered by divine decree.
As the Fellowship Sorcerers clash with rebellious dragons bent on catastrophic annihilation, those faithful to the True Sect raise armies to extinguish the clans and fight a last, bloody conquest of the free wilds. All while the Prime Matriarch courts reckless power to seize charge of Mankind’s destiny.
As contention threatens to snap the final restraint of old Charter Law, bitter strife and vicious ambition threaten to revoke humanity’s right to inhabit the world. The only hope of survival for all lies in the recovery of the Paravians, those who last called Athera home before Mankind.
The true hearts of heroes will be challenged in the savage fires of conflict; Elaira and Daliana’s steadfast loyalties must rise against the odds or fall as Lysaer’s reckoning collides with the Mistwraith’s secretive machinations. But not before Elder Powers arise to claim their debt for a grievance spanning millennia . . .
THE WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW VOLUME ELEVEN
‘It ought to be illegal for one person to have so much talent’ STEPHEN DONALDSON
‘Janny Wurts builds beautiful castles in the air . . . where every detail is richly imagined and vividly rendered’ DIANA GABALDON
‘Astonishingly original and compelling . . . A gifted creator of wonder’ RAYMOND E. FEIST