L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of Saga of Recluce and the Imager Portfolio, continues the Grand Illusion, a gaslamp political fantasy series in the vein of Sanderson's Alloy of Law.

Fifty years after the establishment of the Imperium, and 450 years before the events of Isolate, Dominic Mikail Ysella—ancestor of Avraal Ysella—is the grandson of the last king of Aloor. Stripped of most of their land, Dominic, as the third son, must support himself.

Dominic, quietly working as an isolate, someone unreadable by government telepaths, must navigate a period of political upheaval and a sudden list of dead, high-ranking officials to stave off the collapse of the Imperium.