A towering multi-volume fantasy, The Pearl, is launched by Eric Van Lustbader in The Ring of Five Dragons. Lustbader, one of the most famous and popular writers of the last three decades, returns to the fantasy genre with his most ambitious work yet. Filled with action, colour, and the myriad details of another world, The Pearl is the first great new fantasy series epic of the new millennium, set to rival Robert Jordan, David Eddings, and Terry Goodkind in popular appeal. The Kundalan people have suffered for a century under the viciously oppressive, technologically-superior Vornn invaders. In the resulting crisis of faithwhy hasnt their goddess Miina saved them?Kundalan religion falls under the control of evil forces from within. They, pretending to have no magic of their own and forbid the teaching of traditional sorcery. The Vornns mysterious leaders, the Gyrgon, search for the lost Ring of Five Dragons, the key to the door of the fabled Kundalan Storehouse, and perhaps to Kundalan sorcery as well. Misused, the ring triggers seemingly inexorable annihilation for Vornn and Kundalan alike. Now, from among the oppressed, must arise the hero of prophecy, the Dar Sala-at, who alone can wield the sorcerous power to save the world. Thus begins a huge epic, rooted in the conflict between spiritual and technological civilizations, that confronts difficult moral and cultural questions in a manner reminiscent of Frank Herberts Dune.