Wheel of the Infinite [Mass Market Paperback]

Martha Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2001

Every year, the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure peace and harmony. And every hundred years, the Wheel and the world become one. But now a black storm ravages the beautiful mandala, and a woman with a shadowy past -- an exile, murderer, and traitor -- has been summoned back to put the world right. For if Maskelle and the swordsman Rian cannot stop the Wheel's accelerating disintegration -- then all that is what and will be...will end.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With her previous novel The Death of the Necromancer, Wells established herself as a skilled fantasy world-builder with the ability to blend mystery and intrigue with plenty of buckle and swash. Here she departs from more familiar pseudohistorical European settings for the Celestial Empire, a land where life moves in eternal circles and the wishes of departed ancestors can have as much influence as the living on day-to-day life. Itinerant ex-priestess Maskelle was once the Voice of the Adversary, vessel to a spirit created by the Ancestors and given the task of punishing injustice and evil. When a false message from an interfering evil spirit led her to commit murder, Maskelle left the faith, only to return now, years later, answering the summons of the Celestial One. Someone--or something--has corrupted the great Wheel of the Infinite, distorting the sacred patterns which must be faithfully recreated at the end of each year to ensure the continual existence of the world. The only way to repair the pattern is to find the being responsible for disturbing it, and so the Adversary's Voice is needed once again, despite the past. Assisted by the swordsman Rian, a lordless bodyguard from distant Sitane, Maskelle uncovers an intricate plot whose roots were set into motion long ago--a plot responsible for the murder which forced her to leave the faith. Engaging characters and a convincing setting make this novel of ancient schemes and twisted magic an excellent and memorable read. --Charlene Brusso --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Maskelle, the Voice of the Adversary, speaks for the power the Ancestors created to destroy evil. Since a false vision years ago, she has wandered in exile, but now the Celestial One, head of the Koshan Order of priests, has called her back to the capital city of Duvalpore. The yearly Rite of the Wheel of the Infinite, upon which the survival of the world depends, has been interrupted. An inexplicable black storm has appeared on the face of the Wheel, and if it is not removed before the Rite is completed the world could be utterly changed. With the help of an attractive foreign swordsman named Rian and a troupe of actors, Maskelle must lead the battle against the storm and the strange insurgents from another world who sent it. Maskelle and her allies face murderous water spirits, possessed corpses and cursed puppetsAand then the evil forces get to Duvalpore, and the real trouble begins. Murdered priests, magical assassins and the court favorite Lady Marada all add to the growing mystery; meanwhile, the Adversary, the source of Maskelle's power, seems strangely unreliable. Fast-paced, witty and inventive, Well's latest fantasy (after The Death of the Necromancer) is not only about saving the world; it is also about saving Maskelle from self-doubt and isolation. The vividly imagined Celestial Empire's peril is made all the more dramatic by the characters' sarcastic, reasonable conversations, and by their very human responses to inhuman dangers; there is real reading pleasure here. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Eos (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380788152
• ISBN-13: 978-0380788156
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martha Wells is the author of eleven fantasy novels, including Wheel of the Infinite, City of Bones, The Element of Fire, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer. Her most recent fantasy novels are The Cloud Roads and The Serpent Sea, to be published by Night Shade Books in 2011 and 2012. She has also written a fantasy trilogy: The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, and The Gate of Gods, all currently out in paperback from HarperCollins Eos. She has had short stories in the magazines Black Gate, Realms of Fantasy, Lone Star Stories, and Stargate Magazine, and in the Tsunami Relief anthology Elemental and The Year's Best Fantasy #7. She has essays in the nonfiction anthologies Farscape Forever and Mapping the World of Harry Potter from BenBella Books. She has also written two media-tie-in novels, Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary and Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. Her books have been published in eight languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Dutch, and her web site is www.marthawells.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A rich, fast-moving, beautifully-detailed fantasy novel, July 30, 2000

By 

Roger Mastrude "Roger Mastrude" (Capitola, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wheel of the Infinite (Hardcover)

This book immediately caught me, and I haven't been able to do much else until I finished it. Wheel of the Infinite is set in a world you could imagine as like Cambodia six hundred years ago, with a capital city like Ankor Wat, both an imperial and a religious capital. The temples and palaces of the city form an enormous diagram of magical power, symbolizing the true form of the world. As in other Martha Wells novels, though, magic is entirely real, and the correspondence between the layout of the city and temple rituals and the world flows in both directions--you can change the world by changing the symbols. The heroine Maskelle is an enormously powerful priestess, second in power in the religious hierarchy, whose major blunder in interpreting a prophetic dream ten years before the novel's action caused her disgrace and exile. Now the chief religious feels deeply disturbed about an upcoming, critical, ritual performed every hundred years, and has called her back to the capital. The character Maskelle is a fighter, sarcastic and with an awesome temper. She propels the action through a fast and very enjoyable read.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner from Ms. Wells, January 30, 2001

By 

Maraich (PHOENIX, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wheel of the Infinite (Hardcover)

My first experience with Martha Well's work was Death of a Necromancer. I love her ability with character development and her wry sense of humor. Having read that book I quickly sought out her other titles and consumed them (City of Bones being my favorite). Wheel of the Infinite proved to be just as engaging as her previous works and more tightly written than Necromancer. Maskelle, Rian and Ristam are all very engaging, but even the less central characters are well developed and interesting. Add to that a fascinatingly new world view, with an intriguing religion, and Ms. Wells has succeeded in creating a truly engrossing tale.

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Opening, Another World, July 10, 2000

By 

M. Allegra (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wheel of the Infinite (Hardcover)

First, let me say that WHEEL OF THE INFINATE is not as good as THE ELEMENT OF FIRE or THE DEATH OF THE NECROMANCER but better than the CITY OF BONES. In WHEEL, Ms. Wells has created a whole new world fully realized, with patches of Earth cultures (I recognized India among others) but in a new stew...and Ms Wells bubbles it for all she's worth! The plot line follows a more conventional "prevent the end of life as we know it" plot line than her better books. This reduces the ability of her characters to relax and just be people (as opposed to heros and heroines) for brief moments. She has used the devise of the traveling players before but integrated them into the action more this time. The relationship between Maskelle, the troubled Voice of the Adversery, and Rian, the very skilled but outlawed bodyguard is strong and unusual: she is considerably older but maybe not wiser. There are lots of plot twists and turns, a few surprises and a few not-surprises that were supposed to be. The last quarter of the book got just a bit murky but recovered with a sharp ending. This isn't Martha Wells' best book but as few other writers come close, I wouldn't let that worry me.