Note: Can best be read AFTER The Radiant Seas and before Ascendent Sun, which is a direct sequel to this novel. While it starts almost two years before Primary Inversion it spans 18-20 years without much input about/from the rest of the universe.

Synopsis: Kelric's story from his crash on Coba through the 18 years he was "captive" and assumed dead by the rest of the universe. From the flaps of the Tor first edition: "... Now, in The Last Hawk, Asaro tells the tale of the lost heir to the Empire. Fleeing the heat of battle in a wounded spacecraft, Kelric crash-lands on a proscribed planet where a matriarchy rules through the medium of a complex game. The women in power help to heal him, but destroy his ship and determine that he can never leave - for his knowledge of their world, if revealed to the Empire, would cause the rapid fall of their civilization. And so his rescue turns into an imprisonment of years, decades, a time in which he finds love and a challenging place in the universal game."