'The ancient mapmaker had inscribed a warning within the great empty shadow on his chart, words that echoed down to Dow from half a thousand years before.

Here be whales in great number.

And here be monsters of the deep that riseth to feast upon them.'

Nearly three years have passed since Dow Amber escaped the ruin of the Twelfth Kingdom. In that time, war has raged across the Four Isles, but Dow himself has been hidden away by his Twin Islands hosts, relegated to a backwater of the war in the company of the beguiling Cassandra.

But when word reaches Dow that Ignella of the Cave has been imprisoned on the infamous Ship Kings dungeon-isle of Banishment, he can be patient no longer. He sets forth on an epic voyage that will take him halfway around the world -- defying storm and monster, betrayal and despair -- to the heart of the greatest battle of the age, and to the discovery at last of his true purpose upon the high seas.

The War of the Four Isles is the third volume in Andrew McGahan's momentous Ship Kings series.