Recently, a series of anonymous attacks on ships and airships on Australia's west coast have caught the attention of the Empress of Nippon, whose empire is located on the northeast coast of Australia. He is feared and respected by almost everyone, from smugglers to government officials.

Ariq is a large man, both in physical size and in political power. There, he built a village called Krakentown, offering sanctuary to anyone who wished to make a clean start and who agreed to follow his rules - no killing, no stealing, no cheating. His departure is still viewed as traitorous by his superiors.Īriq and his men (and their families) moved to the southwest coast of Australia, an isolated area settled primarily by smugglers. Ariq joined the rebel cause when he was very young, but when they began to kill innocents, Ariq turned his back on the rebels, even though he had worked his way up in the ranks. His mother was a spy for the rebels who sought to overthrow the khagan, but her identity was discovered and she was executed by his father's successor when Ariq was a child.

Ariq's roots are in the Horde Empire (aka Golden Empire), where he was born to a courtesan in the court of Qajigin Khan (the former khagan, who is Ariq's biological father). In this oversize novel (567 pages), the author tells the love story of Ariq and Zenobia, a tale filled with adventure, danger, and diabolical villains.

Heart of Steel by Meljean Brook