"Prince Lu suggests you make yourself heir to the King at this moment. Slay the Crown Prince here, with your arrow, and no one will know it was other than a hunting accident." Far from the first deadly Palace intrigue to shape the dawn of Imperial Chinese history more than 2,000 years ago, The Thrones of China's tale follows China's first Emperor, his conquests, and the lovers, spies and assassins that people his court -- including Yuang, the enslaved country boy who rose to commander only to face betrayal by his most loyal ally. Witness the misery of the peasants who labored on the gigantic Wall of China, visit the opulent courts of the Emperor and see how he fell into fatal madness, destroying all around him. Step by intermediate step follow today's Simon, the poor black wanderer who has come to start a new life in China, only to learn how little its ancient betrayals and cruelties have changed-- and finally to fall in love, with a female Party commissar who is the secret leader of a deadly rebellion, and follow her startling fate. The Thrones of China lays out the searing story of China's beginning and its present, the opulence, miseries and passions of its cultures, and why it all remains so opaque to outsiders to this day.