The Paths of the Dead
core novel 2002 Dragaera
Record
| First published | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.03 (2,854 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 448 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780312864781 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
The Paths of the Dead opens the Viscount of Adrilankha trilogy roughly three hundred years after the events of Five Hundred Years After, with the Dragaeran Empire still fallen and in ruins following a great cataclysm. Khaavren, now an aging veteran of the earlier books, along with his son Piro and his old companions, becomes caught up in the effort to restore imperial rule. Zerika, travelling in disguise as Piro's friend Zivra, is revealed to be the last surviving Phoenix and the rightful heir to the throne, and she must journey through the perilous, otherworldly Paths of the Dead to recover the Imperial Orb from the gods before the Empire can be restored.
Where it sits
- Universe: Dragaera
- Series: The Khaavren Romances core; position 3 of 6 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Steven Brust
Notes
- From the series record (The Khaavren Romances): 6 novels (1991-2020), narrated in-world by the fictional historian 'Paarfi of Roundwood' in a deliberately florid Dumas-pastiche style, set centuries before the Vlad Taltos sequence. Books 3-5 form 'The Viscount of Adrilankha' trilogy within the sequence. Publication order equals internal chronological order throughout (no divergence, unlike the Vlad Taltos sequence).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Khaavren Romances: position 3 of 6: previous Five Hundred Years After (1994) · next The Lord of Castle Black (2003)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Brust
- Lyorn Records
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Viscount_of_Adrilankha
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