Rossamund has always dreamed of a career in the Navy, fighting tentacled monsters and rescuing damsels from hook-handed pirates.

But fate has chosen him for a different path. He is being sent to train as a Lamplighter - to bring light to the inland roads of the Half-Continent, to shine the way for travellers through lands peopled by outcasts, monsters and worse.

But for Rossamund to begin his education, he must first undertake a journey of his own: to the great city of High Vesting.

Such a road is not for the faint of heart. Only monster-hunters, leers and the most desperate of brigands dare travel the inland ways unguarded. And all Rossamund carries with him is a battered almanac and a pocketful of cheap potions.

It is unlikely to be enough. Stunning in scope and rich in detail, alive with memorable heroes and villains and brimming with new and original science and magics, D.M.

Cornish's tale of scolds, scourges, smugglers and shrewds will thrill and captivate, and leave the reader desperate for more.