Palace
A Novel of the Pinch
Vi-Kata, the deadliest assasin in the Pinch, has been hired to murder
two seemingly unconnected humans in the Pleasure Sect. Vida, an
unmarked girl living in an up-market brothel, The Close, and Arno, heir
to the head of the Cyberguild – overseers of the virtual reality
computer network, the Map.
But as Vi-Kata attempts to fulfil his contract, his task
is about to become more difficult, For Arno, the most talented of the
Cyberguild apprentices, has dropped out of the guild and disappeared.
And if the secret of Vida's heritage proves to be true, the current
First Citizen, Karlo Peronida, could find her very useful. His plans
would put her out of Vi-Kata's reach behind the secure walls of the
Centre Sect.
And on the Map, Arno's cousin, Rico, comes across a
powerful and appalling entity that is obliterating large areas of the
network. Who or what lies behind this is unclear, but if it continues
the consequences are too horrifying to imagine...
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Katharine Kerr
In the realm of epic fantasy, few names echo with the same fierce clarity as Katharine Kerr. Best known for her immersive Deverry Cycle, Kerr didn’t just create a world—she wove a tapestry of time, memory, and reincarnation that spanned centuries, yet remained achingly intimate. Her stories pulse with Celtic inspiration, layered timelines, and flawed, deeply human characters who evolve across lives and generations.
But Kerr’s journey to fantasy legend wasn’t charted from childhood. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, she was more interested in jazz and science fiction than medieval swords and sorcery. It wasn’t until she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area—where myth and counterculture have long danced together—that her path bent toward high fantasy. A longtime fan of roleplaying games, she began designing complex worlds for tabletop campaigns before ever writing a novel. That attention to internal logic and continuity became a hallmark of her fiction. Unlike many traditional fantasy epics, the Deverry books don’t rely on prophecy or fate. They depend on choices—some noble, many terrible—and the way consequences echo through lifetimes.
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