The Gates of Noon

"East of the Sun and West of the Moon..."

...you may find a freighter carrying ivory to Huy Braseal, mammoth tusks to Tartessos and Ashkelon, spices from Cathay to Lyonesse. Another world, of infinite strangeness and adventure. Round a corner, through a door into a harbourside inn, and you may find yourself there, in the realm of shifting shadows, myth incarnate and living legend, the domain of terrifying archetypes that surrounds our own – the Spiral.

Steve Fisher, an ordinary shipping agent, had taken that way once, had sailed the cloud archipelagoes on a desperate quest to Hispaniola. Or had he? Was it only a dream? The memories have faded... But now Steve is being blocked in every attempt to send vital life-saving technology to the beleaguered island paradise of Bali. When he investigates, he finds himself catapulted back through the eerie gates of the Spiral, and into terrible danger. Something wants him stopped, at any cost. But that makes Steve all the more determined to use the Spiral for his own purposes.

Entangled by old loves and ancient hatreds, pursued by vengeful priests and seductive witches, Steve must find help wherever he can – from Ape the warlock, the mighty Maori warrior (and sheep expert) Te Kiore, and the ancient but piratical Batang Sen, as well as the lovely but suspicious Jacquie. Pursued by weird beasts, dacoits, dwarfish demons and the original Bogeymen, Steve fights to reconcile past and present in an epic battle which leads him from deserted railway yards to the sleazy sex bars of Bangkok and the mist-shrouded islands of the South Seas... and rescue the soul of an endangered people.