Following all the recent disruptions, life is finally getting back to normal in Quentaris. The people of the province are preparing for the annual Carnival celebration and for Jaq Coblin this seems the ideal opportunity to sell his baubles and trinkets to the hoards of visitors. A decent days takings would allow him to go home with his head held high and prove to his father that he had made the correct decision in making his own way in the world rather than following his father into the Bargemen & Ferrymen's Guild.

But in a split second all this is taken away from him when two huge men take the barrow and destroy its contents, leaving Jaq with nothing but a lot of bruises. Regaining consciousness Jaq finds himself in the company of Kastoli Askender, a magician who has come to Quentaris to determine the nature of the evil he has been sensing.

Soon Jaq and Kastoli are joined by three others--Oland, Som and Targan. Together the group must discover why someone is stealing parts from a number of stone statues and what their eventual intentions are. Little do they know that they will be fighting to save Quentaris its self.

Stones of Quentaris is the latest volume of The Quentaris Chronicles and follows a group of adventurers as they seek to discover the origins of the Sandmen and determine the reason for various large pieces of stonework being misappropriated.

As with the previous Quentaris books this story is beautifully written and nestles perfectly within this magickal world created by Michael Pryor and Paul Collins. I think that this is the most impressive part of the Chronicles. Regardless of who has written it, each book complements the rest and the reader is hard pressed to identify which is written by the originators of the concept and which by the various invited authors (apart from the obvious fact that the author's name is on the front cover – but you know what I mean). It would be possible to gather all of the books into one (large) volume without the jarring you might expect as you move from one author to the next.

The Quentaris Chronicles was an adventurous but extremely successful concept and long may it continue.