Gathering the Strands starts to bring together the story of adversaries struggling over the distant and artificial world of Vhast towards what looks to be resolution. The inhabitants of Mousehole, instead of reacting to what is happening around them, begin to strike out and shape their own future as they travel around The Land. Following on from Intimations of Evil, Engaging Evil, Clearing the Web, and Scouring the Land, the Princess, and her wife the mage, the Cat, the priest, the ghazi, and the growing number of people that they are bringing together, strike out both in lightning raids and in mobilised armies, against their foe. Now they are being reacted to instead of hitting out blindly at unfathomed foes. Gathering the Strands is the fifth book of a series that sees magic as a scientific experiment as good struggles with evil in a world made by an alien race for their own ends.