The Last Hawk
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The Last Hawk is a novel by Catherine Asaro detailing the life of Kelricson Garlin Valdoria Skolia during his eighteen years of imprisonment on Coba, in the Saga of the Skolian empire series by Catherine Asaro.
The novel opens with Kelric crash landing on the planet Coba. An ancient culture with similarities to the Raylicans, Coba is one of the many isolated and forgotten planets of the former Ruby empire. Kelric makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape and eventually ends up in jail. It is there he spends his time (particularly while in isolation) learning the dice game Quis.
Eventually, Kelric is released and joins one of the "estates" - small matriarchical provinces or city-states that compromise the population of Coba. These estates have special dedicated communes that exclusively play Quis, called Calayna. Kelric becomes a member of one of these communes, known as the "Calani". The society of Coba has, for centuries, replaced war and aggression with competition in Quis. The Quis also double as an information network, with players revealing information about themselves and their estate while at the same time learn about others. Finally, as an information-exchange network, Quis allows technology to improve on Coba at an astounding rate.
The strength of a Calani is based on two properties: a player's skill, and the number of different estates they have worked for. Because of his pleasing appearance and his skill in Quis, Kelric is conveted by the leaders (known as "managers") of the different estates. Kelric's membership in the states proceeds as follows: Dahl, Haka, Bahvla, Miesa, Varz, and finally Karn. Renamed "Sevtar", Kelric has children with two of his wives (one of which is Rhon) during his time in the different estates.
Each time Kelric is traded, his skill and worth increase. In the final trade to Karn, the Karn manager trades rule of the planet (until then, all estates were ruled by Karn) for Kelric. This eventually ignites actual violence, allowing Kelric to escape.
The end of this novel is where Ascendant Sun begins.
