<p><b>WINNER OF THE 2022 BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL</b><br><b><br>'Endlessly creative... so much invention peeking around every corner' Patrick Ness<br></b><br>Arthur C. Clarke winner and <i>Sunday Times</i> bestseller Adrian Tchaikovsky's triumphant return to fantasy with a darkly inventive portrait of a city under occupation and on the verge of revolution.<br><br>There has always been a darkness to Ilmar, but never more so than now. The city chafes under the heavy hand of the Palleseen occupation, the choke-hold of its criminal underworld, the boot of its factory owners, the weight of its wretched poor and the burden of its ancient curse.<br><br>What will be the spark that lights the conflagration?<br><br>Despite the city's refugees, wanderers, murderers, madmen, fanatics and thieves, the catalyst, as always, will be the Anchorwood – that dark grove of trees, that primeval remnant, that portal, when the moon is full, to strange and distant shores.<br><br>Ilmar, some say, is the worst place in the world and the gateway to a thousand worse places.<br><br>Ilmar, City of Long Shadows.<br><br>City of Bad Decisions.<br><br>City of Last Chances.<br><br>'Ilmar is vividly alive with ideas, conflicts, and a sense of its own history – a truly breathtaking fantasy city, down every street a compelling story.' <b>David Towsey</b><br>'A master at the height of his powers. This is epic symphonic fantasy, weaving a breakneck plot through a sumptuously dangerous world.' <b>Ian Green</b><br>'A wonderful twisty stew of a book with a cast of fascinating characters, set against the brilliantly realized city of Ilmar.' <b>Django Wexler</b><br>'A triumph of a book: wildly imaginative, immediately immersive and hypnotically compelling.' <b>Sharon Emmerichs</b></p>