Leodan Akaran, ruler of the Known World, has inherited generations of apparent peace and prosperity, won ages ago by his ancestors. A widower of high intelligence, he presides over an empire called Acacia, after the idyllic island from which he rules. He dotes on his four children and hides from them the dark realities of traffic in drugs and human lives on which their prosperity depends. He hopes that he might change this, but powerful forces stand in his way. And then a deadly assassin sent from a race called the Mein, exiled long ago to an ice-locked stronghold in the frozen north, strikes at Leodan in the heart of Acacia while they unleash surprise attacks across the empire. On his deathbed, Leodan puts into play a plan to allow his children to escape, each to his separate destiny. And so his children begin a quest to avenge their father's death and restore the Acacian empire—this time on the basis of universal freedom.
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“A full-bodied history of events leading up to the situation portrayed and a well-conceived mythology are woven into the narrative, giving it even greater substance. Fortunately indeed, this is just the blockbuster beginning of the War with the Mein.”
— Booklist (starred review)
“Durham has created a richly detailed alternate reality leavened with a dollop of magic and populated by complicated personalities grappling with issues of freedom and oppression.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)A full-bodied history of events leading up to the situation portrayed and a well-conceived mythology are woven into the narrative, giving it even greater substance.
— Booklist Starred Review“Packed with suspense, intrigue, and adventure, most readers will devour this first Acacia installment and impatiently await the next.”
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David Anthony Durham earned an MFA from the University of Maryland. His first novel, Gabriel’s Story, was published to wide acclaim in 2001. He has won several awards, including the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Fiction Award, a First Novel Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and a Legacy Award. His short fiction appears in Gumbo: An Anthology of African American Writing. He lives with his wife and two children California and teaches creative writing at Cal St. Fresno.
Dick Hill, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, is one of the most awarded narrators in the business, having earned several Audie Awards and thirty-four AudioFile Earphones Awards. In addition to narrating, he has both acted in and written for the theater.