In K. J. Parker's new whip-smart dark fantasy, a group of scholars must do the impossible for a ruthless king. The cost of refusal, of course, is death.
Seeking war with his neighbor, the tyrannical ruler of Aelia convenes several of his kingdom's professors for a chat. First Citizen Gyges only just invaded Aelia a few years back and, naturally, his public image can’t take the hit of another unjustified assault.
His totally sane solution? These scholars must construct a fake ancient city from scratch to verify Gyges’s apocryphal claims.
Now these academics must put their heads together to make history. Because if they don't, they'll lose their heads altogether.
Gnomes, witches, and podcasters clash for the future of the village of Lychford.
An unlikely group of gnomes terrorizes the sleepy village of Lychford.
When an ancient prophecy clashes with an unfortunate modern design aesthetic, the people of Lychford must band together to put out fires (both literal and metaphorical) to save their town before the king of the Gnomes (King Greg, and it's dangerous to laugh at a gnome) calls in the terms of an old promise.
Trouble is: no one knows what the promise is, nor how to fulfill it.
Ignyte Award-winning author C. L. Clark brings fantasy to the fens with Fate's Bane, a tragic sapphic adventure.
Warring clans. Burning hearts. Deadly fate.
The clans of the fens enjoy a tenuous peace, and it is all thanks to Agnir, ward and hostage. For as long as she can remember she has lived among the enemy, learning their ways, growing strong alongside their children. When a burgeoning love for the chieftain’s daughter lures them both to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could bind the clans under one banner at last—or destroy any hope of peace. By working their intentions into leather, they can weave misfortune for their enemies… just like the Fate’s Bane that haunts the legends of the clans.
Ambitions grow in their fathers’ hearts, grudges threaten a return to violence, and greedy enemies wait outside the borders, seeking a foothold to claim the fens for themselves. And though their Makings may save their families, the legend that gave them this power always exacts its price.
A delirious and gripping story of fatherhood and masculinity, told through the reimagined Greek myth of Daedalus, Icarus, King Minos, Ariadne, and the Minotaur.
Daedalus of Crete is many things: The greatest architect in the world. The constructor of the Labyrinth that imprisoned the Minotaur. And the grieving father of Icarus, who plunged into the sea as father and son flew from the grasp of the tyrannical King Minos.
Now, Daedalus seeks to reunite with Icarus in the Underworld, even as he revisits his own memories of Crete, hoping to understand what went so terribly wrong at the end of his son's life. Daedalus will confront any terror to see Icarus again—whether it's the cruel punishments of Tartarus, the cunning Queen Persephone, or the insatiable ghost of the Minotaur.
But the truth, stalking Daedalus in the labyrinth of his own heart, might be too monstrous for him to bear.
Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novella When you bring back a long-extinct species, there’s more to success than the DNA.
Moscow has resurrected the mammoth. But someone must teach them how to be mammoths, or they are doomed to die out again.
Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behavior, was brutally murdered trying to defend the world's last elephants from the brutal ivory trade. Now, her digitized consciousness has been downloaded into the mind of a mammoth.
As the herd's new matriarch, can Damira help fend off poachers long enough for the species to take hold? Or will her own ghosts, and Moscow's real reason for bringing the mammoth back, doom them to a new extinction?
A tense SF thriller from a new master of the genre.
We are thrilled to share the cover of KILL ALL WIZARDS by Jedediah Berry,a blood-soaked romp through high society! Picture Conan the Barbarian caught up in a comedy of manners, and you're almost prepared for this unmissable new series.
We could think of nothing but the barbarian. He had come here, surely, to murder or marry someone, to exact revenge, or to say or do something very scandalous. We could hardly wait to see which it was. We hoped it would be all of them.
The barbarian traveled far to consult the wizards of the empire. Instead of lending their aid, they ensorcelled him, exploited his strength, and stole his sword. They should not have done that.
Now the barbarian plans to kill every wizard who wronged him, even if that means blending in with their vile society: dressing in finery, taking tea in exclusive clubs, and reserving the best box at the theater.
Oh, he hates it all with the fiery passion of his savage heart—but not as much as he hates these wizards.
