Across the Burning Sands

Legend of the Five Rings

by Daniel Lovat Clark

Shinjo Shono is heir to the Khan of Khans, destined to one day lead the Unicorn Clan. But the young warrior is torn with anguish and doubt, haunted by the memory of facing his former betrothed on the field of battle—and leaving her to die. His duty feels like a chain, and he longs for freedom. He soon learns that longing has a cost.

Shono travels west to negotiate with the caliph of al-Zawira and ensure continuing peace between the Nehiri and Unicorn. A single misstep could mean war, but cultural barriers are the least of Shono’s concerns, as he faces duplicity, assassins, betrayal, and even sorcery. Can he find the strength within himself and his allies in this far-off city to secure the Unicorn’s future?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2019

About the author

Daniel Lovat Clark is a professional geek who writes and designs games for a living in the wilds of New England.

He was born in Boston and grew up splitting his time between the beaches and highlands of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and the green (or snow-covered, depending) mountains of Vermont. He inherited a love of fantasy, science fiction, and science fact from his father and a love of nature from his mother and a love of art and music from both. And books. Books most of all.

Daniel spent nearly twenty years at Fantasy Flight Games. His professional highlights include co-creating the Android setting, design credit for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Third Edition and Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, and designing the beginner game experiences for FFG's line of Star Wars RPGs.

He lives in central Massachusetts with his wife, child, and the legal maximum number of animals.

Reviews

[Fernando Fitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for L5R lore fans. This is the best of the novellas so far. Could use more polish in the writing, same as the other novellas, but it's a fun read for a long flight if you're an L5R fan.

[Victor Sanchez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has like a third of its story cut out. As in, the plot from the palace intrigue to the expected flight and battle came so abruptly that I honestly believed that my ebook version was faulty. So, while it starts interesting and the monologues of Shono, who is battling with obvious PTSD by killing her fiance, the story does an 180 and gallops to the ending in some baffling and unsatisfying ending that could have worked if you had given at least another 40,000 words to fill the gaps.

As a Rokugan novel, its good but far lacking in the original fiction.

[Carl Grider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was my favorite in this series of novellas which is strange because the Unicorn clan in L5R was always one of the least interesting to me. I thought this book was great. Everything was good story wise but if I had 1 minor knock it was that the ending seemed rushed-but I attribute that to the novella format of the series. Fun read for me.

[Evan Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. The cultural intrigue, the action, the relationships, and the ending were al very satisfying. The only thing that was a bit of an annoyance is the main character did whine quite a lot in the beginning, but I understand it was important to give his pain some focus.

[Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the story behind this book, but it felt more like a rushed novel than a novella. It felt as if the author had twice as many words originally written down, and then the editor told them to cut it by 50%.

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read as part of the collection "Great Clans of Rokugan" but wanted to review this novella on its own.

Great pacing, great characterizations, great dialogue, great story - I wish I had a 100 more stories like this. Written with the flair and grit of a Robert E Howard Conan story.

[Kelly Altic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a bit to get the characters straight but once I did I loved the story!

[Pedro Marroquín · Rating 3 out of 5]

Porque pone que es de L5R, y sale Chagatai (abuelo del conocido), pero no parace nada Unicornio, y las Arenas Ardientes tienen poco que ver con las que conocemos. C-

[Dennis]

im a huge fan of L5R so im biased, good book