On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start. An intricate plot, a propulsive narrative, and a smooth-as-silk prose.