Where Dead Corals Lie

Captain RP Laxman and Oliver Cape sail to the Olympus Islands on the giant wind ferry Charon. Their mission is to administer the World Authority's peace at the end of the long anarchist war... Expecting to make a useful contribution in an outpost of empire they instead become enmeshed in local intrigue and incompetence. The Resident Commissioner is a pompous alcoholic with a Treasurer scheming to replace him. The Secretary James Darling is a buffoon with a dangerous diseased mind. The Japanese trader Omi is also prominent in the affairs of the Islands as are the Resident Commissioner's wife Jocasta and the Treasurer's daughter Hope... The Olympus Islands are being slowly drowned by the ocean. The native People of the Coral bemused by the Authority's representatives realise they have to make use of their innate occult vision and take a more active role in their own affairs... Even though they know that ultimately the inhabitants of all worlds live at the direction of the Fates and the Furies.