Mazehew didn’t like the Grand Parade where the kite-men flew beyond the Edge. He didn’t like the sky beyond the railings, a sky that reached up and out and also down. He didn’t like the utter absence of ground inches from his feet, the way the blue air faded to stars in the evening, up and out and also down. Most of all he didn’t like how the Edge made him feel – small, like nothing. Insignificant.
Third Instar is a vivid, evocative and ultimately dreamlike fantasy novella set in a city on the edge of the world in the most profound sense – a city filled with colour and life, against which David Gullen creates a beautifully universal tale of romance and almost mythical loss.