Stephen Leigh's epic trilogy of vast empires and dangerous politics, compiled in one thrilling volume

Neweden is a world whose gods are death and fate, and it’s here that the Hoorka have arisen: a guild of assassins, whose single law is that the victim must always retain a tiny but finite chance of escape. If the victim can survive until dawn, they may go free.

But the rich and powerful don’t care to have their will thwarted, and so the Hoorka must deal with the consequences of their own ethics. Gyll, the leader of the Hoorka, also has dreams of taking the guild offworld into the growing society of the Alliance, which is trying to reconstruct a shattered, worlds-spanning empire. Is that dream a genuine possibility, or will exposure to other cultures doom the Hoorka entirely?

Gyll must confront internal struggles within his own people, the dangerous politics of Neweden, and the twinned threat and promise of the Alliance. The Hag of Death dances around them, mockingly. Can the Hoorka survive to see the dawn of their own success, an Assassins’ Dawn? Praise for Assassins' Dawn:

"Intriguing, deeply layered stories of assassins in love, war, life, and death. Highly recommended." —Garth Nix, New York Times-bestselling author of the Old Kingdom series

"Action, adventure, character, humor and a strong philosophical base: Stephen Leigh does it all!"
—Janet Morris, author of The Sacred Band

"A strong story about basic issues, about making choices..."—Tanya Huff, author of An Ancient Peace

"The setting of a senescent world gripped by antiquated politics and religious beliefs, with technology serving as an uneasy accessory to relations with a distant, unsympathetic Federation, readily calls to mind the novels of Jack Vance. This is not a bad thing. Leigh writes with an ornate, but very readable, style...in this regard [Slow Fall to Dawn] offers a better read than many contemporary SF novels twice its length."—The PorPor Books Blog