Thalassa, the woman chosen by the gods to be the Lightbringer, and Uthred, the Priest of Flame, have accomplished much. But only when they have the third of the magic artefacts, the Rod of the Shadows, can the powers of darkness be defeated. The Rod is in Iskiard, where their enemies await them.

Ce'Nedra, Imperial Princess of Tolnedra, was confused. Everyone knew that the tales of the Orb that protected the West from the evil God Torak were just silly legends. But here she was, forced to join a serious and dangerous quest to recover that stolen Orb. No one believed in sorcery. Yet Garion's aunt and grandfather seemed to be the fabled sorcerers Polgara and Belgarath, who would have to be thousands of years old. Even young Garion was learning to do things that could only be...

Long ago, so the Storyteller claimed, the evil God Torak sought dominion and drove men and Gods to war. But Belgarath the Sorcerer led men to reclaim the Orb that protected men of the West. So long as it lay at Riva, the prophecy went, men would be safe. But that was only a story, and Garion did not believe in magic dooms, even though the dark man without a shadow had haunted him for years. Brought up on a quiet farm by his Aunt Pol, how could he know that the Apostate planned to wake dread...

A Quest for Simbilis. Cugel the Clever, his mind bent on revenge against Iouconnou, throws in with Mumber Sull, a deposed ruler seeking the legendary wizard Simbilis for help against the minions of Slaye. Cugel and Mumber go up against cannibals, a crooked bridge keeper, and have a short stint as exorcists.

A unique perspective of the Arthurian legend, narrated in the first person by the great king himself. In Godwin's story, set in the 5th century amid the collapse of the Roman Empire in Britain, we discover a painfully mortal Arthur, flawed and fallible with a sympathetic distaste for the necessary cruelties of war.