With a Tangled Skein
core novel 1985 Incarnations of Immortality
Record
| First published | 1985 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.01 (21,418 ratings, collected 2026-08-31) |
| Page count | 405 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780345318855 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
With a Tangled Skein is set around the time of the First World War and centers on Niobe, an Irish woman who enters an arranged marriage with the young intellectual Cedric Kaftan. Though initially reluctant, Niobe grows to love her husband as he matures, and the couple's happiness is shattered when agents working for Satan assassinate Cedric in an attack actually meant for her. Seeking a way to strike back, Niobe accepts the office of Clotho, the youngest of the three Fates who together spin, measure and cut the threads of mortal life, and uses her new position to move against Satan's schemes. She later returns to the role as Lachesis, helping to uncover and thwart a plot in which Satan offers corrupted officials renewed youth in exchange for handing power to his own agents, threatening the futures of Niobe's own descendants.
Where it sits
- Universe: Incarnations of Immortality
- Series: Incarnations of Immortality core; position 3 of 7 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Piers Anthony
Notes
- From the series record (Incarnations of Immortality): The original seven-book run, one novel per Incarnation (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil, Good), published together as a complete cycle 1983-1990.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Incarnations of Immortality: position 3 of 7: previous Bearing an Hourglass (1984) · next Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
- Internal chronology, within Incarnations of Immortality: position 3 of 8: previous Bearing an Hourglass (1984) · next Wielding a Red Sword (1986)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Incarnations of Immortality
- bookseriesinorder.com: Incarnations of Immortality
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_a_Tangled_Skein
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