This spy-and-detective novel, written with brilliant knowledge of the history of ancient China, can also be called a novel about love and historical fantasy. It’s a novel not only about espionage, wars, and conspiracies, but also about love for the most beautiful of women, the memory of whom hasn’t faded for the second millennium; about a faraway country where everyone wrote poetry—warriors, officials, and drifters—and where the discovery of the secret of immortality was very close…
The Celestial Empire is a vast oasis of calm and prosperity in a world torn by wars. The capital of the empire is the city where Nanidat Maniakh, a silk merchant, a warrior, and a spy from Samarkand, feels right at home. Or rather, home for him is the whole world. But an assassination attempt on his life on a quiet spring evening doesn’t seem to him like the most frightening episode in a biography full of danger and victories. Step by step, however, he has to unravel the tangled webs of conspiracies that eventually bring the great empire crashing into dust. All that remains is to save himself and the most beautiful woman in the world—and find an island of silence amid the raging world.