IN TIMES TO COME…

Chung Kuo: Ice And Fire is the fourth volume of a vast dynastic saga that covers more than half a century of this vividly realized future world. In the sixteen volumes that follow, the Great Wheel of fate turns through a full historical cycle, transforming the social climate of Chung Kuo utterly. Chung Kuo is the portrait of these turbulent – and often apocalyptic – times and the people who lived through them.

The story of the young prince, Li Yuan – his love for the beautiful Fei Yen, his accession to the throne, and his long, relentless struggle against the traitorous DeVore – is interwoven with the tales of many others, among them the brilliant young scientist Kim Ward, whose ‘web’ will one day make it possible at last for Mankind to reach the stars, and the artist Ben Shepherd, whose development of a completely new art form – the Shell – will revolutionize the culture of Chung Kuo.

This epic tale continues in Book Five, The Art Of War. Five years after the destruction of the starship The New Hope, the Council of Seven is preparing to meet and discuss the way ahead. In the long and bitter war they have just fought they have emerged triumphant but greatly weakened. The days of speaking with one voice are past and there is dissension among them. But DeVore thrives on such dissension and, ruthlessly casting off his First Level co-conspirators, makes a new alliance among those disinherited billions in the lowest levels of the City.

The problems for the Seven are vast. Even so, there is one solution that – even if it leaves the underlying malaise untreated – might yet prove successful.

Li Yuan’s plan is to ‘wire up’ the whole population of Chung Kuo; placing delicate electronics in every citizen’s head that would enable the Seven to trace and thus control them. Among those brought in to try to make the ‘wire’ a reality is the young Clayborn boy, Kim Ward.

Ben Shepherd, meanwhile, discovers an artistic vocation, and soon the unexpected happens – this cold and seemingly distant young man falls in love. For the young Prince, too, love is a distraction from his work, the fulfilment of a long cherished dream. But his love is far from the fragile, compliant creature she outwardly appears.

In Chung Kuo: The Art Of War the Great Wheel turns into a new, more dangerous phase – from which no one will escape unscathed.