At Winter's End
After 26 million years of vibrant civilization, the Great World ended when falling death-stars locked the Earth in ice. But one small band of People escaped to an underground cocoon where they, and their descendants, waited for 700,000 years. Now their long winter is over. The omens proclaim the time has come. Time to emerge, to inherit, to claim and conquer the Earth... Master storyteller Robert Silverberg creates a breathtaking vision of the far, far future in an epic of rebirth and revelation, passion and despair, dread and awe--and the triumph of the human spirit. For 47,000 generations, no one has felt the wind; the sky and moon are half-forgotten legends. The People have remained safe within their underground shelter, self-sufficient, sustained by their ancient myths and powerful prophecies. The time of ice will end, and then they will emerge to take their place in the new world. Led by a prophecy--that the People will prosper in Vengibneeza, city of the sapphire-eyes--Koshmar's tiny tribe leaves the cocoon. Every step into the New Springtime brings fresh wonder--and feverish terror. The People discover night and day, cold rain and wild creatures that kill. The myths have become real. And as their legends are proven, the laws that have guided the People for generations become meaningless. Chieftain Koshmar must confront challenges beyond the scope of the ancient rules, while her lover, the priestess Torlyri, must seek new rituals--and even new gods. The People are torn by strange, nameless passions; warriors' souls seethe with rebellious yearnings. Only Hresh, a psychic child whose curiosity would have earned his death in the cocoon, can hope to bridge the chasm between the old and the new. In the fabled city of Vengiboneeza the tribe finds more mystery and turmoil. They are primitives amid the ruins of an interstellar civilization, amid machines that can devour Time or unleash the obscene, seductive power of collapsed suns. Beneath the enigmatic mocking of immortal talking icons, Koshmar and Torlyri fight to hold the People--and their own love--together, and fulfill the prophecy of the gods, while Hresh struggles to find the keys to his people's legacy and destiny. The New Springtime is beginning, but time is short. Because other beings--some not human--are coming forth from the ice. Other tribes. With other gods. And other prophecies...