The most exciting, original and important new fantasy novel to be published since China Miéville's PERDIDO STREET STATION.A breathtakingly skilful debut. A superb work of literary fantasy. In a truly original imagined world of breathtaking, sometimes surreal beauty, fifty utterly alien but disarmingly human immortals lead mankind in a centuries-long war. Jant is the Messenger, one of the Circle, a cadre of fifty immortals who serve the Emperor.He is the only immortal - indeed the only man alive - who can fly. The Emperor must protect mankind from the hordes of giant Insects who have plagued the land for centuries, eating everything and everyone in their path.But he must also contend with the rivalries and petty squabblings of his chosen immortals.These will will soon spill over into civil war. Steph Swainston has written an astonishingly original literary fantasy.She writes beautifully. Her novel places her in a tradition of writing typified by Mervyn Peake, M.John Harrison and China Miéville. This is a breathtaking debut novel of the finest quality.