At the end of her bestselling Coldfire trilogy, C.S. Friedman challenged readers to imagine what a world would be like if sorcery required the ultimate sacrifice-that of life itself. Now, in Feast of Souls, she introduces us to a terrifying world in which the cost of magic is just that...in which the fuel for sorcery is the very fire of the human spirit, and those who hunger for magical power must pay for it with their lives. In this epic tale of nightmarish shadows and desperate hope, the greatest threat of all may not be that of ancient enemies returned, or ancient wars resumed, but of the darkness that lies within the hearts of men.

The Yellow City is in crisis. The wells are running dry, and the Sun Mages have been unable to call the rains. Frustrated and impotent, Mages across the land can no longer work the magic that once ran their empire. Now the magic lies solely in the hands of a few women-the first ever to have developed magical powers. The men's anger knows no bounds-and that hatred spills over in a series of violent attacks. Now, Raeshaldis, Summer Concubine, and Pomegranate Woman, three uneducated and unskilled women, must band together and use their new powers to save both their country and themselves.