This is the first volume of the Helliconia Trilogy—a monumental sage which goes beyond anything yet created by this master among today’s imaginative writers. An entire solar system is revealed, and with it a world disturbingly reflecting our own, Helliconia: an Earth-like planet where dynasties change with the seasons. Events and characters and animals stream across the pages of this gigantic novel. Cosmic in scope, it keeps an eye lovingly on the humans involved. So the 5,000 inhabitants of the Earth’s observation station above Helliconia keep their eyes trained on the events of Oldorando and may long to intervene though the dangers are too great. So we on Earth have them all in our vision in one of the most consuming and magnificent novels of scientific romance. Won BSFA Award for Best Novel in 1982. Won John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1983. Nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1983. Note: British spelling

The exotic world of Helliconia continues… The detailed interplay of climate, geography, race, religion and politics is ingeniously interwoven in a tapestry which leave the indelible impression of a teeming civilisation which exists in space and time… Helliconia Summer confirms and even outstrips the promise of the first award-winning volume… The completed work seems certain to be accepted as a classic of its kind

The centuries-long winter of the Great Year on Helliconia is upon us, and the Oligarch is taking harsh measures to ensure the survival of the people of the bleak Northern continent of Sibornal. Behind the battle with which the novel opens lies an act of unparalleled treachery. But the plague is coming on the wings of winter and the Oligarch’s will is set against it—and against the phagors, humanity’s ancient enemies, who carry the plague with them