In her previous novel of the Deverry saga Katharine Kerr started a new part of the story: the Westland Cycle in which she explores the history of the Elycion Lacar, the elves who inhabit the strange lands to the west of Deverry.

A Time of Omens takes up many threads in the rich tapestry of Deverry’s history: it tells of Dallashandra’s struggle to help Evandar’s people – the strange and evanescent Guardians – survive by finding them a new home on the material plane.

It charts the progress of the Deverry civil wars during the ninth century and especially focuses on the return of the true king – Maryn – and his marriage to the young Bellyra; of Rhodry’s adventurings as a silver dagger during the wars; and of the strange talisman entrusted to his keeping. And we meet once more the seductive and infuriating Salamander as he searches for and finds a lost love, and witness the beginning of Jill’s search for the lost elves of the Souther Isles.