The Lord of Middle Air
From the wilds of the Borders to the enchanting and terrifying lands of Faerie...
When young Walter encounters his kinsman Michael Scot, his life is changed for ever. Even in the turbulent Borderlands of thirteenth-century Scotland, Michael had a fearsome reputation as a magician and master of forbidden arts, trafficking with the demons of middle air. Now he has returned from years of exile with the Pope's pardon and the favour of the Emperor, a peaceful man of God – and yet strange events still follow him.
When his father is ambushed and killed, and his lands and his very life threatened by a necromancer, Michael appears to offer Walter the aid he desperately needs. Soon he is transported to another world, ensnaring, enchanting, seductive. There he finds a new life, new heroism and a new, all-consuming love. But there is a terrible price he must pay...
Based on the Border legends surrounding the real Michael Scot, and written by his namesake and descendant, The Lord of Middle Air is a superb evocation of the medieval world and the dramatic and dangerous realm of black magic, by one of Britain's foremost fantasy novelists.
"Genuinely superb. A classic as both fantasy and adventure." – Locus
Michael Scott Rohan
Michael Scott Rohan (1951-2018) was a Scottish fantasy and science fiction author and writer on opera.
He had a number of short stories published before his first books, the science fiction novel Run to the Stars and the non-fiction First Byte. He then collaborated with Allan J. Scott on the nonfiction The Hammer and The Cross (an account of Christianity arriving in Viking lands, not to be confused with Harry Harrison's similarly themed novel trilogy of the same name) and the fantasy novels The Ice King and A Spell of Empire.