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From a masterly new talent: a rich historical fantasy that is at once a compelling family saga and an allegorical tale of power and the corruption of love. In lonely exile in a remote peasant village, Reyhnard, third son of the murderous tyrant Basal of Brychmachrye, writes down the story of his past life as prince and king. It is a tale that bustles with all the glittering, fervent life of a feudal court—and the tale of a royal family doomed by the lust for power and by the inescapable burdens power imposes: of a king who has usurped the throne by means of murder and marriage; of the king's mistress, who exploits her beauty and sexuality for dynastic ends; of the narrator's sister—and his beloved; and, above all, of the narrator himself—poet and, eventually, king. A brilliantly realized portrayal of an imaginary kingdom. A Mirror for Princes is also an impassioned exploration of any world where power is all, where love and trust are inevitably betrayed.