It seemed like a routine delivery job.

Except that the parcel was a jug containing a genie called Erimines the Ethical, who knew the secret of immortality but was actually more interested in sex after being bottled up on his own for more than 1,400 years.

Except that the wizard to whom the package was addressed turned out to be dead on arrival - murdered - and Fost Longstrider, courier, looked likely to go the same way.

Just the start of a huge sprawling fantasy saga, studded with helter-skelter chases, beautiful bandits, floating sky cities, a super-intelligent war eagle and demonic powers - an epic of high adventure and all-action imagination.