Inversions — Iain M. Banks

ON A DISORDERED WORLD
In Haspidus, Dr. Vosill serves as the personal physician to the king, an incredible achievement for a foreigner and--even more unthinkably--a woman. Sharp-tongued, independent, and full of dangerous ideas, Vosill has more enemies at court. than even she suspects. But she also has more remedies at hand than those who wish her ill could possibly imagine.

IN A CRITICAL TIME
Across the mountains, a man named DeWar serves as chief bodyguard to the Protector General of Tassasen, a profession he describes as the business of "assassinating assassins." In a troubled new country ravaged by revolution, DeWar, too, has enemies--but his methods of combating them are more direct.

ONE PERSON'S PRESENCE
As these new nations struggle to rise up from the ruins of a fallen empire, Vossil and DeWar have each caught .the ear those in power. Although they seem to act as loyal servants to their chosen countries, their true agendas areas elusive as their mysterious, and possibly common, past.

COULD CHANGE A CULTURE