Sartorias-deles

Reach far enough back and the record simply stops — burned away at the Fall of Sartor, four thousand years gone, when the oldest kingdom was lifted out of time itself. This is Sartorias-deles, one of four worlds circling a distant sun, seeded so long ago by travelers through the world-gates that its people call cattle and coffee and the tomato their own and remember Earth not at all. It is a place of duels and court intrigue, of young queens learning statecraft the hard way, and always at its edge the cold country of Norsunder, where those who trade their souls for endless time wait outside the turning of the years. Sherwood Smith has been mapping this world since childhood, and the books arrive as many doorways into one continuous history rather than a single marching line. Crown Duel — the making of the countess Meliara, all mountain rebellion and the slow, wary reading of a rival's true heart — is the best-known door. Around it turn the lighter chronicles of CJ's Notebooks, kept in a girl's own hand; the swashbuckling of Sasharia En Garde; the long campaigns of the Alliance against Norsunder; and tales pitched from a child's-eye view clear up to the grown reckonings of kings. The eras don't queue politely: enter almost anywhere and the world holds. What lingers is the warmth. Smith gives friendship and growing-up the care most fantasy spends on battle, and lets even her adversaries keep their reasons. Begin with Crown Duel — it asks nothing of you beforehand and opens every other road. From there follow whichever thread calls: the schoolroom conspiracies of the younger books, or the shadow-war that shapes them all.