The Patchwork World is a planet with a mosaic of smaller “worlds”. Each consists of a vast crater encircled by mountains that touch space. Each is an isolated milieu with its own qualities: wet or dry, hot or cold, flourishing or hostile, and so on. Dusk and Dawn is a collection of three short-stories and one novella that take you to two such craters.
Oceanica: a crater sea dotted with islands and girdled by mountainous rimlands. It is fractured in many nations that compete for resources and influence. Right now, an ambitious tyrant is seizing whatever he can. Three short-stories speak of ordinary Oceanic people who strive to build or rebuild their lives in a time of turmoil.
The Desolation: an arid crater whose city states survive thanks to an ancient canal system that brings water from the encircling mountains to the latifundios in the central flatlands. Now, a violent revolutionary regime seek to topple the old social order. The title novella Dusk and Dawn tells the story of Fennec, a bastard in a ruling house and the involuntary heir to its throne. Exiled by war, Fennec must now discharge xer sacred oath to xer ruler. But stakes are higher than that: the future of civilization.
The Dream Forge 