1453 - An army is marching. The Turkish sultan, Mehmed, brilliant, and ambitious, has declared war on Constantinople. In Queen of Cities, ANDREW NOVO evokes an age of armored heroes and high-walled cities, of Machiavellian mistresses and scheming politicians, of religious conflict and the clash of empires. With the scrupulous eye of an historian, the author reveals a city caught in a life and death struggle, targeted for conquest by the world's most powerful man. The stone, silk, and steel of the fifteenth century come to life in an epic drama that reverberates in our own time. The battle rages on land and sea with deadly machines of destruction. In this conflict, the fate of two civilizations, two faiths, and Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, will be decided.