THE SAINTS OF THE SWORD

Third installment of Marco's sword-and-sorcery series, Tyrants and Kings (The Grand Design, 2000, etc.), wherein the former spymaster, now emperor, Renato Biagio struggles to preserve his crumbling empire against an alliance of power-grabbers and evildoers. Each book is independently intelligible, more or less, though perhaps with too few main characters to provide much continuity, and the backdrop is no better than nondescript. Still, series fans will want to investigate. Note, however, that the cover trumpets a “riveting conclusion” to the saga, while inside we're informed that the author is currently hard at work on the next book in the series. Over to you.