这段是该书的第一段，文字相当漂亮有力，而最后一句更是锦上添花... (来源：老牌的英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

   The gods talk by signs. It may be a leaf falling in summer, the cry of a dying beast or the ripple of wind on calm water. It might be smoke lying close to the ground, a rift in the clouds or the flight of a bird.
   But on that day the gods sent a storm. It was a great storm, a storm that would be remembered, though folk did not name the year by that storm. Instead they called it the Year the Stranger Came.
   For a stranger came to Ratharryn on the day of the storm. It was a summer's day, the same day that Saban was almost murdered by his half-brother.
   The gods were not talking that day. They were screaming.