Wie in Amber regeert, heerst over de ware wereld. Een Prins van Amber werd door een ongekende en machtige vijand gevangen genomen. Nu bedreigt hij het perfecte koninkrijk in zijn machtscentrum - de geheime kennis van Schaduw.
To the spaceship Discovery, floating in the silent depths of space since Dave Bowman passed through the alien 'Star Gate', comes Heywood Floyd on a mission of recovery. What he finds near Jupiter is beyond the imaginings of any mere human.
The year is 1626, and a battle-weary Captain Alatriste and his companions sail home from the on-going war in Flanders. He returns to a Spain that is rotten to the core, as gold from the Americas floods into the port of Seville, brought by the country's infamous treasure fleet. As various factions within the Court vie for supremacy, certain interests are creaming off undeclared profits from the galleons' cargo, thus depriving the royal treasury of its lifeblood. Indeed some of the booty is finding its way into the hands of the same rebel provinces Spain is fighting to suppress. The King and his most trusted advisor, the Count-Duke Olivares, have become aware of one such plot and have decided to teach the perpetrator a lesson. Once more, they must call upon Captain Alatriste's blade in a dangerous adventure that will bring the captain face to face with his nemesis, and with a ruthless man who has designs on the throne...
A voyage leaps to the end of evolution, to the surface of a poisoned planet. Witness mankind and his creations trading places in a ceremony that illuminates the shimmering connections between free will and destiny that will determine the ultimate course of our future.
Tekst van de toelichting die de joodse politicoloog aan het Beierse gerechtshof zond bij zijn eis tot schadeloosstelling voor het in de Tweede Wereldoorlog ondergane leed.