Amenkor is is a legendary city. A major trading port that acts as a gateway into the land. It used to be a renowned centre of culture but since the coming of the White Fire a thousand years ago, things have just gone from bad to worse. Now the ruling Mistress has been found dead and her replacement doesn't seem willing or able to turn around the fate of her city.

Varis has lived on the streets for most of her young life. After the death of her mother she is left to fend for herself so when she is offered the chance to earn money by just spotting particular members of the community for Erick she cannot believe her luck. When she realises that she is identifying victims for an assassin, one of an elite group known as Seekers, she is forced to chose between her old life and a new one working closer with Erick.

As she spends more time with him he starts to train her as an assassin an soon she has targets of her own. The Seekers act on behalf of the Mistress eliminating the worst criminals in the city. But Varis has an ability that she has not disclosed to Erick. She has the gift of "Seeing" – detecting the auras of people and it is this ability that helps her identify who is a threat and who is peaceful. So when her ability shows her that one of her targets is neither dangerous nor guilty of a crime her belief that the Mistress is infallible is shaken to the core.

The Skewed Throne is an original inventive fantasy written by Joshua Palmatier. The story is compelling and totally addictive. Varis, the main character, struggles with her own conscience as she decides whether to join Erick and become an assassin. I was amazed when I read that this is Palmatier's first work of fiction as the storytelling could have come from the pen of any of the great fantasy authors of our time.

The Skewed Throne is a stand-alone story that also sets up a world in many future books could be set. If this was Joshua's first venture into fantasy then I do hope it will not be his last. He is one talented writer and I look forward to his next book.

From the Cover
Amenkor, city of legend, a trading port through which the riches of many lands passed. At its height, Amenkor had been a center of wealth and culture, a place where those of many different backgrounds coexisted in peace and prosperity. Then, a millennium ago, Amenkor was caught in the White Fire, a mysterious force that swept across the land spreading madness, drought, famine, and disease in its wake. With the passing of that first Fire, the ruling Mistress of the era had been found dead on the steps leading up to the palace. And since that time the city had begun a slow, inexorable downward spiral.

Now the Dredge-the bustling market street that snaked between the slums and the prosperous center of the city-marked the dividing line between plenty and poverty; between safety and peril; between those who could walk their streets without fear and those who dwelled in the shadows preying upon the helpless and unwary even as they were preyed upon themselves.

Varis had learned the art of survival as a very young child, when an unexpected act of violence tore her away from her mother's loving protection. Then, when the White Fire blasted through Amenkor for the second time, Varis-along with the entire city-had been trapped in this unstoppable blaze of power. And for this child of the streets and alleys, for Amenkor itself, everything changed.

Though the current Mistress had continued to reign from the Skewed Throne, Amenkor's decline seemed to escalate as the Dredge and the slums claimed more and more of the city and its population.

And once beyond the Dredge, few ever escaped back to more civilized sections. But for Varis the chance unexpectedly presented itself when a guardsman of the Skewed Throne named Erick-one of the elite assassins known as Seekers-enlisted her to work for him, first as a spy and tracker, and later as a trained assassin herself, meting out the Mistress's justice to the worst criminals plaguing the city. Yet gradually, because she had a gift for "Seeing" the true nature of people, Varis began to realize that something was wrong, that some of those marked for elimination were not guilty, not dangerous to others around them. But how could the Mistress be mistaken? Trust in the all-knowing, all-seeing justice and wisdom of their ruler was the very foundation of Amenkor's society.

And then one fateful day, Varis claimed a life that took her beyond the law, and suddenly there was nowhere safe for her in the Dredge. There was only one place left to flee to-into the heart of Amenkor itself.

There, in the center of the city, where the wealthiest citizens dwelled, Varis would face her harshest challenges and greatest opportunities. For whether she knew it or not, she had not escaped the White Fire unscathed. It had marked her for its own, and in the high city, she would either find her destiny or meet her doom...