The war has been raging for a hundred years . and humanity is close to defeat.
Santhenar is locked in conflict with the lyrinx – intelligent, winged predators from the Void who are desperate to gain their own world. And despite the development of mechanical battle clankers, and mastery of the crystals that drive them, humanity is losing. The enemy is destroying its nodes of magical power, one by one.
Tiaan, a clever but naïve crystal worker in a clanker manufactory, is testing a new kind of crystal when she overhears an enchanting young man, Minis, speaking from far away. The crystal has woken her gift for geomancy, the most powerful of all the Secret Arts, and the most perilous. It is a talent that both humanity and its enemies are desperate to control.
Falsely accused of sabotage by Irisis, a malicious rival, Tiaan flees for her life. But soon she is stalked by the outcast, wingless lyrinx, Ryll, who plans to use her in his dreadful flesh-forming sorcery.
From afar, Minis advises and guides Tiaan and she now sees him as more than a friend. Aching for him, Tiaan follows his instructions all the way to Tirthrax, the tallest mountain in all the Three Worlds, where a nightmare awaits her .
You won't want to miss this edge-of-the seat epic fantasy series by a million-selling author.
What reviewers say about the Three Worlds books
"A compelling adventure in a landscape full of wonders." – Locus
"A page-turner of the highest order . Formidable!" – SFX on Geomancer
"It is the most engrossing book I've read in years." – Van Ikin, Sydney Morning Herald
"Readers of Eddings, Goodkind and Jordan will lap this one up." – Starlog
"Utterly absorbing." Stephen Davenport, Independent Weekly
"For sheer excitement, there's just no one like Irvine." SFX on The Destiny of the Dead
"As good as anything I have read in the fantasy genre." – Adelaide Advertiser
Reviews and Honours for The Well of Echoes
Scrutator, Honourable Mention, 2003 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel, and listed in the Sydney Morning Herald's BEST BOOKS OF 2003.
Chimaera listed in the Sydney Morning Herald's BEST BOOKS OF 2004.
'Ian Irvine is arguably the most inventive fantasy author to emerge in recent years. A page-turner of the highest order ... Irvine can now consider himself comfortably ranked next to the works of Robert Jordan and David Eddings and, more appropriately, the mighty Anne McCaffrey. Formidable!' SFX
'This is, attractively, grimmer and grittier than most fantasy novels with a real sense of industrial squalor and a society in paranoid melt-down – and with a neatly unpleasant set of twists at the end.' Roz Kaveney, Amazon.uk
'Ian Irvine has produced one of those rarities in the fantasy genre, and that is a unique, well-thought-out world coupled with a well-written storyline. A gripping read.' Enigma
'Irvine imagines the epic landscape through which the characters move in persuasive detail and describes it powerfully. The misery of the manufactory's oppressed children and fearful adults is effectively communicated and elaborated. Driven by fear and inadequacy ... they cheat, lie and betray others in the cause of their own ambition, but are nonetheless sympathetically portrayed.' Australian Book Review.