Red Pavillion: Knight's Dawn by Hunter, Kim - 2001

London: Orbit, 2001. First edition, TPBO, Fine,. John Howe. London: Orbit:, 2001. First edition, TPBO, Fine, 374 pp. Cover artwork by: John Howe Book One of The Red Pavilions. Had a couple people order this in advance. A wounded knight awakes on a hillside sans memory. He's taken to a magnificent city governed by unscrupulous officials. He's offered work as a tradesman. His new trade involves cutting the hands off dead people and his new abode is adjacent to a stinking sewer crowded with rats. His life sucks. Eventually he decides to join a mercenary (and kind of revolutionary) army known as the Red Pavilions. Looks like fantasy with a bit of a bite instead of fantasy that bites. . . if you catch my drift.