The battle against the gods continues in the heart-pounding sequel to Enemy.
Snow never planned on having a partner. Never planned on picking fights with a god. And certainly never expected to start a revolution.
But that was before the goddess Tal'Shik returned, looking for revenge on the republic that rejected her. Snow's search for allies against Tal'Shik sends her from the Senate halls to the Academy's archives and into the gang-controlled slums. But when those allies start disappearing-including her partner Veiko-Snow brokers a costly deal with a rival god to get the power she needs. Because Tal'Shik doesn't want to destroy the Republic. She wants to take it back . . .
In an action-packed fantasy in the vein of Robin Hobb and N. K. Jemisin, two outcasts will become allies for the fight of their lives.
Snow is many things. A half-blood assassin who's quick with a blade. A conjuror with the power to manipulate shadows. A sharp-witted smuggler who looks after herself first and no one second. What she has never been is trusting, so when a northern stranger helps her escape two Republic soldiers, she's more than a little suspicious.
Joining forces with someone as deadly as Snow isn't easy for an outcast like Veiko, who hears the dead, whether he wants to or not. But as a clanless outlaw, he doesn't have many options. When the two of them uncover a conspiracy that could tear the land apart, they form an unlikely partnership. But as they grow closer, their enemies grow stronger, and Snow will need to make a choice: sacrifice her partner . . . or damn the Republic to war.
Iari is good at killing monsters. As a templar in the Aedis, a multi-species religious organization committed to protecting the Confederation, eliminating extra-dimensional horrors is her job. But after she helped stop separatists from sabotaging the entire Confederation, she discovered a new sort of monster: the rogue-arithmancer, political kind.
Promoted and sent north to the tundra of Windscar, Iari leads a team of templars to investigate ancient, subterranean ruins, which local legend claims are haunted, and which have mysterious connections to the dangerous arithmancy used by the wichu separatists. Iari isn't worried about ghosts. She's worried about surviving separatists and a fresh attempt to upend the Confederation.
Included in Iari's team are Char, a decommissioned battle-mecha and newly-joined templar, and Gaer, ostensible ambassador and talented arithmancer. As they delve into the ruins, they find remnants of long-ago battles, bits of broken armor and mechas-which unexpectedly reanimate and attack. It seems there is still dangerous arithmancy in Windscar-but the source isn't who Iari expected, and they're far worse than the separatists . . .
Set in the universe of Rory Thorne, this new sci-fi mystery follows an unlikely duo who must discover the motive behind an unusual murder.
THE TEMPLAR: When Lieutenant Iari hears screams in the night, she expects to interrupt a robbery or break up a fight. Instead she discovers a murder with an impossible suspect: a riev, one of the battle-mecha decommissioned after the end of the last conflict, repurposed for manual labor. Riev don't kill people. And yet, clearly, one has. Iari sets out to find it.
THE SPY: Officially, Gaer is an ambassador from the vakari. Unofficially, he's also a spy, sending information back to his government, unfiltered by diplomatic channels. Unlike Iari, Gaer isn't so sure the riev's behavior is just a malfunction, since the riev were created using an unstable mixture of alchemy and arithmancy.
As Gaer and Iari search for the truth, they discover that the murderous riev is just a weapon in the hands of a wielder with wider ambitions than homicide-including releasing horrors not seen since the war, that make a rampaging riev seem insignificant . . .
The city of Illharek teeters on the edge of war. Rival godsworn battle in both the Suburban streets and the Senate chambers. And in the fields and forests, a Taliri army plots its attack.
When a rebel faction of Taliri offers to help defeat Tal'Shik, Dekklis sends Snow and her partner, Veiko, north to Cardik's ruins. The Taliri say that Tal'Shik's avatar lives in the ruins, and they want Snow and Veiko to kill her. Instead, they discover a city full of angry dead, betrayal, and an unexpected ally.
Meanwhile, Dekklis, now a senator, tries to keep the peace in Illharek by making allies of the powerful Academy and enlisting the Laughing God's help to control the Suburba. But when a godsworn assassin tries to kill her, the fragile peace shatters, and the Suburba erupts into violence.
As Dekklis restores order on the tip of a legion sword, Snow and Veiko concoct a plan to defeat Tal'Shik. But as the Taliri army bears down on Illharek, their alliance-and friendship-starts to crack. Because this isn't a battle for Illharek's streets, it's a battle for Illharek's soul. And some costs might be too high . . .
Rory Thorne must use the fairy blessings gifted to her to change the multiverse in the second book in this space opera duology.
After avoiding an arranged marriage, thwarting a coup, and inadvertently kick-starting a revolution, Rory Thorne has renounced her title and embraced an unglamorous life as a privateer on the edge of human space.
Her new life is interrupted when Rory and her crew-former royal bodyguards, Thorsdottir and Zhang, and coconspirator Jaed-encounter an abandoned ship registered under a false name, seemingly fallen victim to attack. As they investigate, they find evidence of vicious technology and arithmancy, alien and far beyond known capabilities.
The only answer to all the destruction is the mysterious, and unexpected, cargo: a rose plant. One that reveals themself to be sentient-and designed as a massive biological weapon. Rose seeks to escape their intended fate, but before Rory and her friends can get Rose off the derelict ship, the alien attackers return.
Rory and her friends must act fast-and wisely-to save themselves, and Rose, and maybe the multiverse, too, from a war humanity cannot win.
Rory Thorne is a princess with thirteen fairy blessings, the most important of which is to see through flattery and platitudes. As the eldest daughter, she always imagined she'd inherit her father's throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium.
Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world.
When Rory arrives in her new home, she uncovers a treacherous plot to unseat her newly betrothed and usurp his throne. An unscrupulous minister has conspired to name himself Regent to the minor (and somewhat foolish) prince. With only her wits and a small team of allies, Rory must outmaneuver the Regent and rescue the prince.
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse is a feminist reimagining of familiar fairytale tropes and a story of resistance and self-determination-how small acts of rebellion can lead a princess to not just save herself, but change the course of history.
Snowdenaelikk never planned to return to the city of Illharek, but that was before the siege in Cardik, before the violent and once forgotten goddess Tal'Shik came looking for revenge at the head of a Taliri army.
The only people who can save the Republic are Snow, her partner Veiko, and the highborn scout Dekklis. Together they mean to muster the power of the Senate and leverage the arcane knowledge of the Academy's Archives.
Once in the city, however, they discover the situation is already dire. A rash of disappearances among the highborn men and the resurgence of old heresies suggest that Tal'Shik's godsworn have already infiltrated the city.
When Veiko is added to the ranks of the missing, Snow is done waiting. She brokers a deal with a rival god to get the power she needs to stop Tal'Shik. But Snow has never been good at making bargains, and this deal is going to cost her....
The Illhari Republic rests on the bones of gods, telling tales of conquest and forgetting its once-bloody devotion to its most powerful goddess. Snowdenaelikk, half-blood conjuror and smuggler, cares less about history than the silver she can win with sharp metal and sharp wits. But when the local legion blames her for burning a village, an outland with a sense of honor intervenes, and Snow finds herself tangled in politics and an unwelcome partnership.
Snow and her new partner, Veiko, together with the legion scout Dekklis, uncover a conspiracy that will destroy the Republic from within. It seems that the goddess is back from wherever dead gods go. She has not forgotten the Republic, and she wants revenge.
Loyal Dekklis will do anything to save the Republic, and Snow reluctantly agrees to help-until she realizes that "anything" means sacrificing Veiko. Now Snow must decide whether her partner's life is worth betraying her allies and damning the Republic to war.
