Description:

The first of The Island Chronicles, Paludavia (The Swamp Road) begins at the end of the one of the Island’s bloodier wars, the war for Drahlan independence. Crown Prince George of Serelia (the losers) comes for the independence ceremony. But he has another mission; suspecting that his old allies the Verecundans have an Island takeover plan, he enlists the assistance of Terry Marlowe, a Verecundan exile and Drahla’s Royal Counsellor. He puts together a state visit team of himself, his wife Princess Darlene and Terry. What Terry does not know is that Darlene’s brother, now dead, was the one who killed Terry’s husband in war and murdered her infant son in a massacre. Now they not only have to deal with that revelation, but also with their discoveries concerning the left-wing Verecundans, facing the dilemma of how their relatively small and poor countries could effectively deal with a developed Verecunda. The solution of that dilemma and its aftermath is the book’s stunning conclusion.