ECHO CITY – random extract #6
I’ve just delivered the revised ECHO CITY to my editors at Bantam in the US, and Orbit in the UK. Hoorah! I’ve been immersed in it for the past couple of weeks, and I really think it’s the best fantasy novel I’ve ever written. So … for now, here’s the final brief extract. I hope these snippets have whetted your appetites, and closer to publication, there will be many more.
Dragar’s Canton had been hidden away from the rest of Echo City for over five hundred years, and though there were written accounts about what it had been like before the concealment—a normal place, with buildings similar to those throughout the city, ruled by priests of the generally benevolent Dragarian religion—no one knew for sure what had become of it since. There had been conjecture for a while, and sometimes there still was, but it had become a silent part of the city, forgotten by most because it was as distant and unknown as the Markoshi Desert. An enigma on their doorstep, Penler had called it once, and he should know. His book about the Dragarians had resulted in his banishment, but even he knew little. It was a book of legends and myths considered insidious because so few knew even them, he’d told Peer once over a bottle of wine. The most amazing place in the city, and nobody thinks about it. It’s just the six domes, that’s all. They’re regarded as sculptures now. Even kids don’t dare each other to go out there and stand close to them anymore, because it’s boring. Nothing can happen. Nothing ever does. At least, not that we see. Pushed by Peer, tongue loosened by more wine, he’d smiled and laid back, staring at the cracked ceiling of his adopted home in Skulk. The Dragarians can’t be fools, he’d said. They’ll want to know what the rest of the city is doing. They might be closed off from us, but we’re no mystery to them.
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