God Stalk and Dark of the Moon are the first two books in P.C. Hodgell's acclaimed series about the noblewoman/thief Jame the Talisman. These classic novels of high fantasy have been out of print and hard to find since they appeared in the early 1980s. Now, Meisha Merlin has reprinted them in the omnibus volume Dark of the Gods, which also includes the short story "Bones."

Jame is one of the Kencyrath, a race of magically gifted mortals bound to the Three-Faced God in the millennia-old struggle with the evil and immensely powerful being known as Perimal Darkling. God Stalk tells how the child Jame wakes to find herself a young woman wandering in the Haunted Lands, badly wounded and pursued by the undead, and how she becomes involved with thieves, rulers, inn-keepers, and divine powers in the gods-haunted city of Tai-tastigon.

The second novel, Dark of the Moon, finds Jame leaving Tai-tastigon in the company of her blind, mind-linked cub, Jorin, and the giant Kencyr warrior Marcarn. They seek Jame's twin brother Torisen, who instead of being a 10-year-old boy, is older than Jame, and the Highlord of the Kencyrath. Torisen is far away in the Riverland, where he is unpopular with his nobles, and embroiled in deadly serious intrigues that will soon reach out to enmesh his unsuspecting and politically naive sister.

Jame's adventure continues in the sequel to Dark of the Gods, Seeker's Mask. --Cynthia Ward