From back cover: Although this is primarily an adventure story, and a pretty good one at that, it is also a richer and more detailed novel . . . the book is both more ambitious and more rewarding than most similar fantasy adventures, as well as providing a nostalgic return to the Thieves' World.
It is long after the days of Jubal, Shadowspawn, and their contemporaries, and there is barely more than a single survivor who remembers the city's full history. Molin Torchholder, the survivor at hand, has assassins on his trail (some things never change in Sanctuary.) To guard the city's secrets he must recruit successors, and he enlists a veteran, Cauvin, and a boy, Bec, as new repositories of Sanctuary's past, present, and future.
Interspersed with the contemporary action and intrigues are enough vignettes of Sanctuary history to fill in the backstory for Thieves' World neophytes and pave the way for a full blown revival of the place.
I'm a fan of Thieves' World and liked the glimpses of the Sanctuary I remember from long ago. The current story is a twisted tale of politics, magic, and fate that follows two main characters, an old Rankean nobleman in exile and a young pauper as they get swept up in earth-shattering events once more converging on the most famous rotten city in the world.
