The Conjurer’s Riddle Hardcover | Kindle
Sequel to The Inventor’s Secret
By Andrea Cremer Philomel Books | Penquin Random House Young Readers
Release date: November 3, 2015
What would have become of North America had the British won the Revolutionary War? That’s the premise of Andrea Cremer’s The Inventor’s Secret book series, which creates an alternate 19th-century history where the British Empire has dominion over the New World as an underground Resistance rebels against it. The exiled children of the rebellion reside in the Catacombs in the New York Wildlands, where they stay in hiding from the Empire as they grow up without their parents until they come of age and can join the fight.
In The Conjurer’s Riddle, the second book of the series, 16-year-old Charlotte returns to the Catacombs after the caverns are set ablaze, leaving the children no shelter. She has no idea what happened to cause the destruction of their home, but there’s no time to figure it out, as she now must lead the young refugees to safety. Her final destination is New Orleans, the rendezvous point for the Resistance, but first she must find a way to get there.
Jim Butcher‘s long-running supernatural hard-boiled detective series The Dresden Files has had fans clamoring for more, while his more traditional fantasy books of Codex Alera have been well-received over the past decade. Now the best-selling author is launching a new series called The Cinder Spires, which combines fantasy and steampunk for a high-flying adventure, starting with the first book, The Aeronaut’s Windlass.
In The Aeronaut’s Windlass, the world is engulfed in a dangerous mist that caused humanity to move up above the clouds to Spires, divided into multi-tiered Habbles, where noble houses vie for power and airships are the main mode of transportation, shipping, and military. When the children of noble houses come of age, they enlist for a year’s service in the Spirearch’s Guard. On Spire Albion, Gwendolyn Lancaster — who’s House is the most prestigious — is a new Guard trainee, joining cousin Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster, one of the warriorborn, humans who possess feline-like characteristics. At the Academy, the cousins meet Bridget Tagwynn, who’s of a lower, dying house (it’s just her and her father left in their line), and Bridget’s protector, Rowl, a cat who is the first of his kind to be accepted into the service.
The Secrets of Blood and Bone: A Novel Sequel to The Secrets of Life and Death Paperback | Kindle
by Rebecca Alexander Broadway Books | Crown Publishing
Release date: September 1, 2015
Author Rebecca Alexander follows up her 2014 page-turner The Secrets of Life and Death with its sequel, The Secrets of Blood and Bone, which once again splits up the narrative between modern-day events surrounding the fictional Jackdaw Hammond and her mixed clique of revenants and witches, and the 16th century adventures of Edward Kelley, the real-life assistant to famed Elizabethan alchemist Dr. John Dee.
In present day England, Jackdaw Hammond is living on borrowed time…literally. Technically, she died when she was 11, but thanks to the help of witches and their use of magic sigils, her life on earth has been extended while she lives as what’s known as a “borrowed timer.”
Meanwhile, Edward Kelley is on a secret mission traveling from his English homeland to the mean streets of 16th century Venice where lone travelers are targets for thieves and the Inquisition holds the city in a reign of terror.
Armada is the much anticipated follow-up to Ernest Cline’s first novel Ready Player One and he travels much of the same territory as his first novel. Armada is a novel that positively overflows with references to the movies and video games of the 1980’s, and Cline’s passion for the cultural items of the period can be found on every page. Cline weaves a story that feels familiar, largely because it is rooted in movies and games that you’ve seen before.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press