Book excerpt: Take a doomed princess, a dispossessed prince and a wicked king, a vengeful magician and a melancholy witch; now add fairies, ogres, changelings, scheming barons, wanderers who are not what they seem, robbers, orphans, and a race of hardbitten warriors at war with all humanity. Stir in politics, intrigue, plots and assassinations, battles and sieges, then set it all to simmer in a mythical archipelago across the western sea before the time of Arthur. Jack Vance draws together the threads of fairy tale and pagan myth to weave an epic tapestry of adventure and intrigue in the Elder Isles. The result is a masterpiece. - Matt Hughes "Suldrun's Garden" is Book I of the Lyonesse series, and Volume 52 of the Spatterlight Press Signature Series. Released in the centenary of the author's birth, this handsome new collection is based upon the prestigious Vance Integral Edition. Select volumes enjoy up-to-date maps, and many are graced with freshly-written forewords contributed by a distinguished group of authors. Each book bears a facsimile of the author's signature and a previously-unpublished photograph, chosen from family archives for the period the book was written. These unique features will be appreciated by all, from seasoned Vance collector to new reader sampling the spectrum of this author's influential work for the first time. - John Vance II