<b>2024 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST, BEST FANTASY NOVEL</b><br/><b>WINNER OF THE 2022 BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL</b><br/><b><br/></b><b>'Endlessly creative... so much invention peeking around every corner' Patrick Ness</b><br/><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>