The barbarians are coming and what do they bring? A vivid, turbulent novel following the fates of two very different people in a land that is not their own drawn together at The Hour Of The Thin Ox In tranquil, prosperous Bryland, a young heiress learns of a new engine of war which will bring terrible change in its wake. In the distant, arrogant nation of Escaly, the elderly Imperial Geometer is sent upon an unexpected and frightening mission. In the dark, feverish jungles of Belanesi, a strange half-human people wait for a season of rain and the call of a mysterious piper. At the Hour of the Thin Ox three cultures collide, with violent and paradoxical consequences.