Sugar Rain: Paul Park

The sequel to Soldiers of Paradise. In the city-state of Charn the generation-long winter has given way at last to Spring and the lovers Thanakar and Charity are separated by war and social upheaval. Throughout the harsh winter, Charn's deterministic religion, based on astrology and the erotic love poems of an unwitting god, locks most of the population into unending, hopeless servitude of the Starbridge ruling class. The long-awaited spring - in accordance with prophecy and dim legends - is heralded by floods, the births of monsters and sweet, fertile rain which brings an intoxicating taste of chaos to the burdened poor whose minds are slowly turning to the bloody pleasures of revolution and riot. Thanakar Starbridge, fleeing a death sentence, escapes to distant Caladon and believes his lover to be dead. But Princess Charity journeys through a cavernous underworld to emerge into the sunshine, freedom and the freshness of a world renewed. Cover art by Don Maitz.