The Golden Sword: Volume 2 (Silistra Quartet)

The battle of the sexes is never over... Biology rules reality... She had the power to create planets. The sixty carved bones of the Yris-tera foretold her ancient fate. Her heritage of power took her beyond time and space and stole from her the one man she loved. Enslaved on the planet Silistra tomorrow's most beautiful courtesan unleashes the powers of the gods. ON A PLANET DESPERATE FOR POPULATION, WOMEN HOLD THE KEYS TO POWER. But power brings enemies. Estri, holder of Silistra's highest office, never suspected the intrigues moving against her...until her rivals attacked. Her betrayal toppled more than a single well-Keepress. Estri's enemies threatened all of Silistra. Their plan: to reveal the planet's precious secret secret of extending life in exchange for off-world technology -- the technology which decimated Silistra's population long ago. "Engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure." -- C. Brown, Locus The amazing and exotic adventures of the most beautiful courtesan in tomorrow's universe." -- Frederik Pohl. "The best single example of prostitution used in fantasy is in Janet Morris' Silistra series: High Couch of Silistra (originally entitled Returning Creation), The Golden Sword, Wind from the Abyss, and The Carnelian Throne." -- Anne K. Kaler, "The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine."

Best selling author Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 30 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, in which she created the Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of ancient fighters modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes. She created, orchestrated, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell, writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, The Little Helliad, with Chris Morris. She wrote the bestselling Silistra Quartet in the 1970s, including High Couch of Silistra, The Golden Sword, Wind from the Abyss, and The Carnelian Throne. This quartet had more than four million copies in Bantam print alone, and was translated into German, French, Italian, Russian and other languages. In the 1980s, Baen Books released a second edition of this landmark series. The third edition is the Author's Cut edition, newly revised by the author for Perseid Press. Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.