The Wounded Hawk

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The Middle Ages.

Finally, the Black Plague has passed and for a while it seems evil has been defeated. Europe recovers; prosperity returns, trade resumes, and people slowly recover from the effects of the plague. Then, just as the Church relaxes its guard, war spreads across Europe. Widespread heresies challenge the authority of the Church. Revolts and rebellions threaten to topple the established monarchies and overturn the social order of Europe. And then the plague returns, worse than ever.

Thomas Neville, a neurotic warrior-priest, eventually discovers the cause. The minions of the Devil have been scattered throughout European society during the confusion of the Black Death. His task is to discover the identities of these shapeshifters so that the Church can move against them, but it is a dangerous task.

These are master shapeshifters, perfect at their craft, and Neville can never be certain of who he should trust.

Reviews

“Her best book yet…an intricately shaded tale from the black-and-white world of medieval religion.” —Romantic Times Book Club on The Nameless Day, Book One of the Crucible Series

“With a keen eye for detail and the nuances of medieval Europe, Douglass begins a new multivolume fantasy set on alternate, 14th-century Earth.

Filled with the intricate weave of religious and political history that made up an era when church and state were not yet divided, this powerfully written tale belongs in every fantasy collection and has strong appeal for fans of historical fiction.” —Library Journal on The Nameless Day, Book One of the Crucible Series

“This is an extraordinary novel…meticulously researched for an authentic 14th century atmosphere, not just in terms of aesthetic details, but in terms of the character’s beliefs and philosophies of life.” —SFX Magazine on The Nameless Day, Book One of the Crucible Series

About the Author

Sara Douglass was born in Penola, a small farming settlement in the south of Australia, in 1957. She spent her early years chasing (and being chased by) sheep and collecting snakes before her parents transported her to the city of Adelaiden and the more genteel surroundings of Methodist Ladies College. Having graduated, Sara then became a nurse on her parents' urging (it was both feminine and genteel) and spent seventeen years planning and then effecting her escape.

That escape came in the form of a Ph.D. in early modern English history. Sara and nursing finally parted company after a lengthy time of bare tolerance, and she took up a position as senior lecturer in medieval European history at the Bendigo campus of the Victorian University of La Trobe. Finding the departmental politics of academic life as intolerable as the emotional rigors of nursing, Sara needed to find another escape.

This took the form of one of Sara's childhood loves - books and writing. After she spent some years practicing writing novels, HarperCollins Australia picked up one of Sara's novels, BattleAxe (published in North America as The Wayfarer Redemption), the first in the Tencendor series, and chose it as the lead book in their new fantasy line with immediate success. Since 1995 Sara has become Australia's leading fantasy author and one of its top novelists. Her books are now sold around the world.

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Books By Sara Douglass