As a child in Kathmandu, Asha was bitten by a dragon and gained the ability to hear the souls of all living things. Years later in India, she uses her strange gift and her training as an herbalist to save people possessed by ghosts, poisoned by legendary beasts, and tortured by the cruel doctors of Ming. And to fight the occasional bear or tiger, of course. With the help of a beautiful blind nun and a sleepy little mongoose, Asha confronts both victims and predators, including the man who stole her childhood and killed her lover. But when she journeys into the west, Asha discovers that there are fates worse than death and there are human monsters that can only be defeated by a woman with the strength of a dragon.

Set in India, blind character

The epic conclusion of the eight-volume Other Earth series, which includes the Halcyon, Europa, and Chimera series: The dragon-possessed healer Asha of Kathmandu joins forces with the fox witch Wren, the airship engineer Taziri, and the immortal knight Gideon to save the living gods of Alexandria from an ancient evil. The immortal Lilith has come to the city to terrorize its people, and to twist them into hideous, monstrous slaves to serve her dark designs. Many heroes have gathered to defeat her, but the one person who knows all the secrets of this place is stolen away. Asha’s new ally Anubis has a dark agenda of his own. And if Asha cannot control her own grief and rage at the evils she has seen, the dragon’s soul that dwells within her may consume her utterly, transforming her into the most devastating monster of all. Inhuman creatures rampage across Alexandria, and battles rage from the city streets to the night skies, and from the great lighthouse down into the vast necropolis hidden beneath the earth. But this is a battle that cannot be won with weapons, no matter how otherworldly, if Asha is to also save her own sanity and bring peace to the city of the gods.

Diverse cast