Amazon.com description: Product Description: Somtow’s far-flung galactic civilization is a creation to rival Silverberg’s Majipoor or Herbert’s Dune. It is a universe with its own language and exotic customs, vividly etched characters and rich history that spans thousands of worlds and tens of thousands of years. The godlike Inquestors of the High Inquest had forsaken all htat made them human. But one young Inquestor rediscovered the power of compassion and hastened the end of their ancient, starflung empire.... “In a prose that evokes the spirited imagination of the symbolist painters and poets, Somtow postulates a complex universe of immense scope ... upholds the author’s place as one of SF’s formidable talents.” – Publishers Weekly