The Unfinished Land

A Novel

Greg Bear

• Publisher: Harper Voyager
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9781328592361
• Print ISBN:
  9780358645504

A sixteenth-century English apprentice fisherman is swept away into a world of adventure, mystery, wonder, and monsters in this historical fantasy.
The year is 1588. Reynard Shotwood survived the destruction of the Spanish Armada's failed invasion, but floats alone in the water off Suffolk, the sole survivor of an English fishing boat enlisted in the common defense. No longer a boy, but not yet a man, Reynard believes his life is already over.
When he is pulled from the North Sea to the dubious shelter of a crippled Spanish galleon, Reynard is tasked by the ship's captain with guiding them to a safe harbor in these unfamiliar waters. Instead, the ship is swept north, to an island not found on any charts but only whispered of in half-forgotten legend.
There, eldritch creatures visit the crew, stealing precious time from their sleeping forms. Only two are spared: Raynard and Manuel, the ancient mariner who rescued him. Manuel is left miraculously younger, while Reynard is gifted—or cursed—with fragments of knowledge beyond his understanding.
These fragments spur Reynard and Manuel away from the crew and deeper into the island's mysterious interior. It seems Reynard has a destiny here, one that draws new allies and enemies alike, some human, others found in no earthly bestiary. But his destiny is stubbornly veiled, even as the nature of the island becomes shockingly clear: it is a kingdom at war, an enchanted realm ruled by hierarchies of godlike beings to whom humans are pawns at best and the world itself is no more than an idle game.
But even a lowly pawn can become the most powerful piece on the board. All he has to do is survive . . .

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Map: The Northernmost Isle of Tir Na Nog
• Epigraph
• Preface
• Broken Armada
• ¿Irlanda o Islandia?
• Valdis
• Cardoza Rising
• Blunters
• An Advancing Front
• The First Death
• Maggie Strong
• Faithful Wings
• A Hidden Boat, and Islands in the Mist
• Blunting, and Things Thereof
• The Scout’s Tale
• The Siege
• Of Childers and Bone-wives
• The King of Troy
• King of All Tricks
• Troy’s Camp
• Out of the Woods
• Maeve
• The Ravine
• Exodus
• The Melt
• A Drake Wing Cloak
• Under and Out
• Old Ice and Two Trods
• Separation
• Old Things Have Their Day
• A Quarry of Souls
• The Delay of an End
• First Night on the Cross-Trod
• Gifts Good and Bad
• The Road Before the Pass
• The Company of Drakes
• Two Journeys
• Plain of Jars
• The Pass
• The First City
• Last Roundabout
• A Return
• An Echo in the Glooming
• The Next Silence
• The First Krater
• Deep Granite
• The Dividing
• The Second Krater City
• The End of the Tir Na Nog
• A Dead Crafter, and How to See It
• The High Tent
• The Sister Queens
• The Last Krater City
• The Chafing Waste
• The Change
• The Crafter’s Lair
• The Line Passes
• England and No Home
• White Shadow
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Connect with HMH