Long training softened his footfalls against the stone his feet were bare in any case. More than shadows aided this priest's stealth. In this land, such a man would be a priest, intent upon the most sacred of his duties. Within the moonlight's strange shadows, a man might crouch on the shadowed ledge of a building and be only a faint etching against the marbled gray. It could make lowcaste hovels seem sturdy and fine pathways of plain clay brick gleamed as if silvered. On some nights, the moon's strange light bathed all Gujaareh in oily swirls of amethyst and aquamarine. The barbarians of the north taught their children to fear the Dreaming Moon, claiming that it brought madness. Its flesh, however, is still hungrily, savagely alive. The Gatherer's task is to save the soul, at any cost.

It is natural to strike a reflection that offends, but then the glass cuts the soul bleeds. The fears we confront in shadows are as reflections in glass. Since I am by no means an expert, this makes it entirely possible that one or more of my characters has a name that means 'beloved of cheese' or something similar. Instead I tried to capture a suitable structure and feel while avoiding compounds that would have meaning in those languages. In particular I struggled with character names, since many of these cultures' names were meaningful compounds of words in their languages-but this isn't Earth, so I couldn't use those languages. Armchair Egyptologists, you have been forewarned.

My goal was to give homage my goal was not to ape reality. Since this is a fantasy novel, not a history text, I found myself in the odd position of having to de-historify these tales as much as possible-in effect stripping away the substance of reality while leaving behind only the thinnest broth for flavoring. In some ways I think it would have been easier to write pure historical fiction, because then I could have used all the artistic and factual information provided by scholarship and science. Like most fantasy writers, I have found it challenging to write material influenced by real (if bygone) cultures. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

The killing moon by nk jemisin