From the daring and critically acclaimed master of historical fiction Conn Iggulden, DARIEN is the first book in the Empire of Salt, an epic new fantasy series of spellbinding imagination . . .

TWELVE FAMILIES. ONE THRONE.

The city of Darien stands at the weary end of a golden age. Twelve families keep order with soldiers and artefacts, spies and memories, clinging to a peace that shifts and crumbles. The people of the city endure what they cannot change.

Here, amongst old feuds, a plot is hatched to kill a king. It will summon strangers to the city - Elias Post, a hunter, Tellius, an old swordsman banished from his home, Arthur, a boy who cannot speak, Daw Threefold, a chancer and gambler, Vic Deeds, who feels no guilt - and Nancy, a girl whose talent might be the undoing of them all.

As the sun sets, their arrival inside the walls will spark a series of explosive events. Before the sun returns, six destinies will have been made - and lost - in Darien.

Welcome to the Empire of Salt, where sword and sorcery are at their finest . . .


'A master storyteller' Sunday Express

'Iggulden is in a class of his own' Daily Mirror

'One of our finest historical novelists' Daily Express