Judith Tarr

In ancient Egypt, a woman might be king—but the price she paid would bind her soul for eternity.

Hatshepsut, the Great Royal Wife, is bound in marriage to her brother, Thutmose, whom she despises. Unable to give him a son and heir, though she does produce a daughter, she sends him a surrogate and a distraction, the beautiful young concubine, Isis. Isis provides him with an heir, but when the king dies while his son is yet a child,

...

Long years after the White Mare came to the people of the Mothers, bringing the wild horsemen from the sea of grass and changing the world forever, the world is changing again. The Mother of Lir is dead, her heir cast out amid dire omens. War is coming–such a war as the people have never seen, fought with a new and terrible weapon: the chariot.

Rhian, potter’s child and White Mare’s chosen, ventures with Emry the prince

...

For a long, brutal century, the Kingdom of Lower Egypt has been occupied by the “Vile Asiatics,” the conquerors called the Shepherd Kings. With their horses and chariots they overwhelmed the armies of Egypt and swept over the Delta and the sacred cities.

Iry, daughter of an old noble house, the Sun Ascendant, has been enslaved by the bearded conquerors. But her new master is born of a different blood, son of the priestess

...

In the grandfathers' time, when few yet living had been born, the People worshipped the horse, and served him, and took the gifts that he gave them: his meat, his hide, the milk of his mares. But he had not yet granted to men the greatest gift of all: the gift of riding on his back, and racing the wind. Sparrow is a shaman's daughter in a tribe that forbids women to be kings, to be shamans, to be anything but silent and tractable servants to the all-powerful...

The conclusion of the trilogy about the ex-monk who has magical powers that began with The Isle of Glass (1984) and The Golden Horn (1985).

Kidnapped, tortured, betrayed by his brothers whom he loved, the heir of the Golden Empire has lost everything but his life. His only hope is a chance encounter, a wandering priest from the Empire of the Sun. But the priest is more than he seems, and the prince is stronger than he knew; and war is coming. Two empires hang in the balance. Two emperors will fall, unless the prince and his unwelcome ally find a way to make peace. But peace comes at a...

Queen in all but name, one woman's battle to rule her kingdom, from the Court of Jerusalem to the glorious city of Byzantium. Melisende was the oldest daughter of Baldwin of Jerusalem, a princess of the Franks and, since she had no brothers, heir to the Crusader Kingdom. The crown would go to the man who married her, and after to her son. But Melisende was a strong woman; the law that forced her to marry instead of taking the crown in her own name...

Alexander the Great ruled the greatest Empire of the ancient world, but he was ruled by his mother, called Olympias. There are as many legends about this powerful Queen as there are of her famous son, and the stories began long before she even met Philip of Macedon. Priestess of the Great Goddess, daughter of ruling house of Epiros, witch, and familiar of Serpents...she was a figure of mystery, fascination, and fear even during her own lifetime....

Prince Daros of Han-Gilen is an infamous rake and wastrel–and a hidden and completely untrained mage of enormous power. Caught breaking the strictest laws of the Mageguild and their magical Worldgates, he is sentenced to serve an aged emperor far away from either taverns or temptations.

But a tide of darkness is rising to swallow the worlds of the Gates. Mages are dying and worse; but Daros’s very lack of training shows him the

...