From the Publisher
THE CITY IN STONE is the long-awaited sequel to Eisensteins classics SORCERER'S SON and THE CRYSTAL PALACE
From the Author
"Sorcerers Son was inspired by a talk that fantasy author and editor Lin Carter gave on talismanic rings. It started me thinking about how I might use gems and metal for magic and then, inevitably, what the opposite of that kind of magic might be. From there grew the people who used those kinds of magic, and then the creatures whom they controlled. That was the background. For the story, all the fairy tales I had ever read (a very large number) came into play, plus all the subjects that fascinate me, especially love and loss and yearning, and a young persons search for his place in the world. Those are themes I use over and over again in my fiction, though sometimes I dont realize it consciously till after the story is finished. They are, after all, the stuff of the human condition, whether they occur in a fantasy context or a realistic one. And theyre what fairy tales are about, too. The Crystal Palace and The City in Stone grew out of the same material, after I did a lot of mulling. My husband offered some valuable suggestions, too; sometimes I think he understands what Im trying to do better than I do."