On the Razor's Edge

by Michael Flynn

  Shadow culture is based loosely on the decadent Franco-Burgundian knighthood of the fifteenth century, the main source for which is Johan Huizinga, The Autumn of the Middle Ages. Many of the anecdotes, events, and poems in the novel are based on actual anecdotes, events, and poems of that era, including the sudden passions of cruelty and sentiment. The story of Prime and Lady Ielnor’s chemise is adapted from the poem “Des trois chevaliers et del chainse.” The song Ravn listens to in Chapter 2, while shepherding Méarana into the Confederation, is adapted from Alain Chartier’s “Ballade de Fougères.” The introductory poem to chapter 7 is adapted from a prose passage in Le Jouvencel, the autobiography of Jean de Bueil. The introductory poem to chapter 14 is a mash-up of “Le Dit de Franc Gontier” by Philippe de Vitry and Eustache Deschamps, no. 184.

  Descriptions of the society of the late Commonwealth and certain twilight attitudes attributed to its writers and thinkers were adapted from Peter Brown’s The World of Late Antiquity concerning the outlook of fourth-century pagan rhetors.

  ALSO BY MICHAEL FLYNN

  In the Country of the Blind*

  The Nanotech Chronicles

  Fallen Angels

  (with Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle)

  THE FIRESTAR SERIES

  Firestar*

  Rogue Star*

  Lodestar*

  Falling Stars*

  The Forest of Time and Other Stories*

  The Wreck of the River of Stars*

  Eifelheim*

  THE SPIRAL ARM SERIES

  The January Dancer*

  Up Jim River*

  In the Lion’s Mouth*

  On the Razor’s Edge*

  *A Tor Book

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  MICHAEL FLYNN lives in Easton, Pennsylvania.