In a slightly different England, in a slightly different summer of 1593, the Queen of England's annual horoscope reveals a terrible danger lurking over her northern borders. The King of Scots is threatened by a mysterious wizard, and only the Queen's champion, Sir Philip Sidney, can hope to avert disaster. Accompanied by the poet and sometime playwright Chrisopher Marlowe - who may or may not be a trustworthy ally - Sidney must find a way to protect King James whether the King wants it or not.

Locus:

"That this is alternate history doesn't really matter to the story: this tale of intrigue, magical plot and mundane counterplot would be worth reading if set entirely in a fictitious pseudo-England...Major and minor characters are well drawn throughout....The story kept me reading to the end, and I was very glad that it did."

Delia Sherman:

"This is a good historical fantasy. They played around with the history, saving Sidney from his Dutch wound and Marlowe from his tavern in Deptford, and punched up the magic a lot. Marlowe would have loved that. What's more, they got the language right, they got the characters right, they got the society right, they sure as hell got the clothes right. It's set up like a play, in five sections, and each section does exactly the right thing. Sidney would have approved of it. Robert Greene would have given it a rave review. Cecil would probably have had them both silenced."

David Hartwell:

"Scott and Barnett have a style and an atmosphere in their collaborative work that is distinct from their separate work, without losing any of the separate strengths of each partner. Historical accuracy and historical invention, society and culture, detail of dress and costume, drama and action, all are highlighted in The Armor of Light. Ellen Kushner gave me a copy of the original edition years ago and told me then what a great book it is. And it is. It's one of the best fantasy novels of the 1980s, and worth a serious re-read now."

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