Description

Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling cursebreaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family’s house and fortune, Irichels’s main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family’s losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them—if it’s not already too late.

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Praise for The Master of Samar:

Lambda Literary award winner Scott (Shadow Man) sets a solid mystery plot within an aristocratic, Victorian-esque commonwealth held together by magical curses. // Scott hits all the expected beats, and her dark magic system keeps the stakes high. —Publishers Weekly

Lambda Literary Award–winner Scott’s solid fantasy-mystery is full of political intrigue, assassination attempts, and dark-magic conspiracies interspersed with scenes of cozy domesticity… // The magic systerm // is pleasingly different, as is the Venice-like // Bejanth. —Krist Hutley, Booklist

Intricate and elaborate scheming both civil and magical, in a wonderfully-realized city. I am in awe! —Ellen Kushner, author of the fabled Riverside mannerpunk novels, host of the influential WGBH/PRI series Sound & Spirit, winner of the World Fantasy and Locus awards

Intrigue and bricolage. Complicated characters. Action and unpredictable mystery. This is exactly what I want in a fantasy, and The Master of Samar delivers. —Sherwood Smith, creator of the immersive Sartorias-deles and Wren universes, Nebula award finalist

In 1985, I picked up a new novel with the intriguing title Five-Twelfths of Heaven, a second novel by a writer new to me. I haven’t stopped reading her since, because Melissa Scott is that good. The Master of Samar is one of her best. —Cynthia Ward, co-creator (with Nisi Shawl) of the acclaimed fiction writers workshop, Writing the Other: Bridging Cultural Differences for Successful Fiction

//…a rousing and exciting story, and Melissa Scott is a master of the genre at her best. My heart was in my throat more than once. The magical system is intricate and fascinating, and the last several chapters are unstoppable—you are compelled to keep reading straight through to the satisfying conclusion. The Master of Samar is a gorgeous fantasy novel. // I would love to visit this world again! —Jo Graham, author of the acclaimed Numinous World historical fantasies and The Calpurnian Wars space operas

Melissa Scott’s The Master of Samar is a character-driven fantasy whose strong use of contract magic, old secrets and the lies we tell each other and ourselves shapes the past, present and future of the characters and the city-state that they are bound to. It is an immersive and enthralling read. —Paul Weimer, SFF book reviewer and Hugo finalist

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The Master of Samar
by Melissa Scott
Published by Candlemark & Gleam, June 2023
340 pages
ISBN: 978-1-952456-16-9
eISBN: 978-1-952456-17-6
Cover artist: H. Won