The Long Price Quartet
| |
| Author | Daniel Abraham |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Stephan Martinière |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Spanish, German |
| Genre | |
| Publisher | |
| Published | May 2006 – July 2009 |
| Media type | |
| No. of books | 4 |
| Website | Daniel Abraham |
Download a book of the serie The Long Price Quartet or buy them on amazon
The Long Price (most commonly known as The Long Price Quartet) is a four-book high fantasy literary fiction novel series written by American author, Daniel Abraham. The series made its debut as Abraham's first published novel, featuring A Shadow in Summer as its first instalment in 2006. The rest of the books were consecutively published by Tor Books before the final release, The Price of Spring, in 2009.
The Long Price takes place in a world dominated by former empire, now a multi-city state, Khaiem. Through extreme economic means, the Khaiem hail a society highly sophisticated and invulnerable to the threat of conquest, all of which is enabled by the their enslavement of summoned gods called the "andat".
The andat, also called "small gods", are part of a uniquely abstract magic systems and become pivotal to the series. Andat are gods formed and bound by men called poets. Poets are men of aristocratic birth who were renounced from boyhood and since dedicate their lives to study the grammars required to enslave these gods.
Fundamentally, the andat are language made tangible, whose names dictate the very nuance of their nature. They are specifically leveraged to corner and control the economy by maximising efficiency in particular trades. Such as Removing-The-Part-That-Continues, who ultimately seizes the cotton and fabric trade by its ability to instantaneously gin cotton and other crops, outpacing foreign processes of the same effort. While an andat's power can never exhaust, it is countered by the strict regulations and training a poet must undertake to bind an andat. Even then, the innate risk of owning an andat are high, as they are mentally strenuous for the poet to control, and a failed binding results in the grotesque and often violent death of the poet.
Development
Prior to writing the series, Daniel Abraham (author) had worked in tech support for 10 years[2] before choosing to shift careers. He had initially sought to enter the medical field before deciding to pursue creative writing. He began to write the series in the 2000s, as part of writer's workshop, Clarion West, at which he was placed under the mentorship of George R. R. Martin, Connie Willis and Gardner Dozois.
In writing the series, Abraham stated that he was aiming to stray from the typical high fantasy novel and try for an unconventional approach to fantasy.[3]
Abraham stated he had written numerous drafts of the first book before receiving feedback he was satisfied with.(exp.)
Despite lulling sales, through his foreign rights agent, he was able to make enough sales to financially cement his career and place in the industry. Upon finishing the series, the pivoted to Orbit Books and there he went on to successfully publish and sell many other titles including The Dagger and the Coin as well as The Expanse (novel) (and direct a highly-acclaimed TV show of the same name) with Ty Franck under the pen-name James S.A. Corey.
Releases
By the release of The Price of Spring, the books were underselling, prompting Tor Books to release the final book under hardcover alone. This deemed it difficult for readers to finish the series, as the books were pricey and became scarce. Between 2010-2011, all physical editions of the series was placed out-of-print.
Following the success of The Expanse in 2015, Tor Books used the leverage and re-released The Long Price Quartet in two omnibuses, and again as a four-in-one edition in 2018.
Synopsis
The story itself is of the prices that come with choices made, and the price of the renewal of life—hence, the Long Price. Following the lives of two highborn men, both renounced by their families, the tale depicts how their small choices long-since made came to cost them endlessly.
Reception
Critique
Novel information
| Title | Publication Date | ISBN | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Shadow in Summer | 7 March 2006 | 9780765351876 |
| 2 | A Betrayal in Winter | 21 August 2007 | 9780765351883 |
| 3 | An Autumn War | 22 July 2008 | 9780765337009 |
| 4 | The Price of Spring | 21 July 2009 | 9780765313430 |
References
- ↑ https://www.amazon.com/A-Shadow-in-Summer-Daniel-Abraham-audiobook/dp/B00OKYQY84
- ↑ Abraham, Daniel (2013-04-02). "Apex Book Company: An Interview with Daniel Abraham". Retrieved 2025-12-26.
DA: I'd been working tech support for about a decade, and I'd been looking at going back to school.
- ↑ Abraham, Daniel (2016-03-09). "Hi, Reddit! I'm fantasy author Daniel Abraham. Ask Me Anything". Reddit. Retrieved 2025-12-22.
With Long Price, I came in trying to do something really different. With Dagger & Coin I tried to do my version of something foundational to the genre.
External links
References
This article "The Long Price Quartet" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:The Long Price Quartet. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
