Search Results for: there will come a darkness

They killed his brother. Now they’re coming for him. . .

As the second prince of Archenfield, Jared never asked to be more than the spare. But behind the walls of the castle is a dark and dangerous court where murder and intrigue are never far below the surface.

Now his older brother is dead. The kingdom is his. And the target is on his back. Can he find the assassin before the assassin finds him?

The town of Oleander is postcard perfect.

Until one day.

The day the Devil came to Oleander.

Whatever they called it, through the months to come – through the funerals and the dinners and the sidelong glances between formerly trusting neighbours – it was all anyone could talk about. It seemed safe to assume it was all anyone would ever talk about, just as it was assumed that Oleander had been changed for ever, and that, once buried, the bodies would stay in the ground.

But then the storms came . . .

‘Maya and her friends turn and fight in this final volume of the Darkness Rising trilogy. Fans will savour the many cinematic moments.’ – Booklist

‘Comfortably mixing science, myth, and mystery, Armstrong creates a vivid world highlighted by appealing characters. Fans and newcomers alike will be eager for more after Armstrong’s story drives to its pulse-pounding climax.’ – Publishers Weekly

Maya Delaney is a skin-walker – a supernatural who can Shift into the shape of a cougar. But just as she learns this extraordinary truth about herself, she also discovers that Shifting comes with a terrible cost. With every transformation, a skin-walker loses touch with their human nature – and in time can lose their identity and their very sense of being human.

Maya and her friends have been running from the people who experimented on them and created them as supernaturals. But now they realise they must confront their enemies if they are ever to have a future. Maya will need to use her powers in order to succeed – but the price of freedom could be too high a cost to pay…

The gripping conclusion to the new Darkness Rising YA trilogy from bestselling author Kelley Armstrong.

Books by Kelley Armstrong:

Women of the Otherworld series
Bitten
Stolen
Dime Store Magic
Industrial Magic
Haunted
Broken
No Humans Involved
Personal Demon
Living with the Dead
Frost Bitten
Walking the Witch
Spellbound
Thirteen

Nadia Stafford
Exit Strategy
Made to be Broken
Wild Justice

Rockton
City of the Lost
A Darkness Absolute
This Fallen Prey
Watcher in the Woods
Alone in the Wild

Darkest Powers
The Summoning
The Awakening
The Reckoning

Otherworld Tales
Men of the Otherworld
Tales of the Otherworld
Otherworld Nights
Otherworld Secrets
Otherworld Chills

Darkness Rising
The Gathering
The Calling
The Rising

Cainsville
Omens
Visions
Deceptions
Betrayals
Rituals

Imagine falling for someone who can fly you through the air. Imagine loving someone who can see your darkest thoughts. Imagine having secrets that could destroy the things you cherish . . .

Midnight in Bixby hides more than one secret, and uncovering them will put Jessica and her friends in more danger than they could have imagined.

The Midnighters aren’t the only ones seeking truth in the darkness. And if the group allow their own secrets to come between them they risk losing one of their own – forever.

I’d known it before we saw the fire trucks and the smoke. I’d known all hell had broken loose at the House of Night the moment it had been proven beyond all doubt that Neferet was on the side of Darkness. Only now I had a terrible feeling that outing Neferet would serve more to free her than to force her to pay the consequences for her lies and betrayals.

At last, Zoey has what she wanted: the truth is out. Neferet’s evil has been exposed, and the High Council is no longer on her side – but she’s far from done wreaking havoc in the vampyre world.

With the seeds of distrust sown and Darkness breeding chaos at the House of Night, everyone must band together – but that’s proving to be more difficult than ever before. The twins are barely speaking and the House of Night’s former enemy, Kalona, has now become their warrior, pushing their trust to the limits. To top it all off, Zoey is pretty darn sure she might be losing her mind – she saw something when she looked at Neferet’s minion, Aurox, through the Seer Stone that she can hardly explain to herself, let alone her friends. Zoey knows that following her instincts might be just what they need to defeat evil… but if she’s wrong, it could cause the destruction of those closest to her.

With the tension at a breaking point and friendships on the line, can the nerd herd come together to stop the spread of Darkness before it’s too late?

Strange things are happening: people going crazy in the streets, old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) clambering on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz and Zahler, all that matters is their new band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead signer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end of the world? Or summon it?

Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Parasite Positive, THE LAST DAYS is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.

Every dream you’ve ever had, and every dream yet to come, exists somewhere in the Kingdoms of the Void. Every nightmare, too. Because there has to be balance – it’s the rules. Problem is, the Lords of Nightkeep aren’t big on rules. They’re more into Conquest, Fear, and Eternal Darkness For All. It takes an extremely powerful Void wizard like Leanan Kite to keep ’em in check. But right now Kite has other worries, and Nightkeep is growing strong. Its Lords hunger for power. And they’ve turned their gaze toward Earth…

Fast-paced, vividly imagined and blistering with sassy dialogue and humour, teen-sensation Catherine Webb’s debut novel is a unique and utterly contemporary fantasy for young adult readers.

The war to end all wars is coming. The Endlords are preparing themselves for invasion. Now should be the time when city men and clansmen come together to fight the dark forces of destruction, yet they feud amongst themselves, unaware of the danger facing them. Only the Sull are preparing for war against the Endlords. They are an ancient, dwindling race, and they fear this fight might be their last. Sull legend speaks of The One Who Bears Loss, the warrior who will slay the Endlords, and they believe this warrior will be one of their own. Ash March is their most valued and sacred warrior, and it is Mal Naysayer’s duty to bring her home to save her people. But thousands of leagues to the north, Raif Severance is learning that he alone can kill Endlords swiftly. An outcast and outlaw, Raif must betray his clan and forsake his beliefs, and raise the Fortress of Grey Ice.

Look out for more information on this book and others on the Orbit website at http://www.orbitbooks.co.uk

‘THE HARD-BITTEN CHAMPION OF BRITISH HEROIC FANTASY’ – Joe Abercrombie

‘HEROISM AND HEARTBREAK . . . GEMMELL IS ADRENALINE WITH SOUL’ – Brent Weeks

After the bloody battle of Colden Moor the warlike highlanders had lost their independence. They lived in surly subservience to the Outlanders, and only a teenage girl survived to represent the line of kings: Sigarni.

Sigarni the silver-haired. Huntress, princess. All of these she was called. But those who pierce the veil of the future knew that a leader was coming to the North – a leader descended from Ironhand, mightiest of the highland kings.

Novels by David Gemmell

The Drenai series
Legend
The King Beyond the Gate
Waylander
Quest For Lost Heroes
Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf
The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend

Jon Shannow series
Wolf in Shadow
The Last Guardian
Bloodstone

Stones of Power
Ghost King
Last Sword of Power

Hawk Queen series
Ironhand’s Daughter
The Hawk Eternal

Ancient Greece novels
Lion of Macedon
Dark Prince

Other novels
Knights of Dark Renown
Morningstar

‘THE HARD-BITTEN CHAMPION OF BRITISH HEROIC FANTASY’ – Joe Abercrombie

‘HEROISM AND HEARTBREAK . . . GEMMELL IS ADRENALINE WITH SOUL’ – Brent Weeks

The soul of Uther Pendragon is chained in hell. The sword of power is lost in swirling chaos. The realm is under threat from barbarian hordes – led by an Undead god from the vaults of pre-history. And a new Dark Age is dawning over Roman Britain.

Then comes a man called Revelation, seeking a child born of a demon . . . Seeking the legendary Lord of the Lance . . . Seeking the sword to save the realm.

Novels by David Gemmell

The Drenai series
Legend
The King Beyond the Gate
Waylander
Quest For Lost Heroes
Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf
The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend

Jon Shannow series
Wolf in Shadow
The Last Guardian
Bloodstone

Stones of Power
Ghost King
Last Sword of Power

Hawk Queen series
Ironhand’s Daughter
The Hawk Eternal

Ancient Greece novels
Lion of Macedon
Dark Prince

Other novels
Knights of Dark Renown
Morningstar

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is known to millions of readers throughout the world. Before he died, however, he made it clear that there were areas he had not explored. Greg Bear now takes up that challenge and an epic story of galactic intrigue and incredible science takes a staggering new twist.
Hari Seldon’s life’s work is about to come to an end. The science of psychohistory he has developed can be refined no more, and the plans for the Foundation, which will steer mankind through the dark centuries ahead, are complete. But it may all be for nothing if the political factions on Trantor succeed in destroying Hari’s work. Accused of treason against the Galactic Empire, the most important trial of all time is about to begin . . .

Who knows that Kate Baeier is back in London?

Who wants her gone so badly?

What is everyone- even her former sleuthing partner- hiding from her?

Still raw with grief over the death of Sam, her lover, Kate finds herself the target of inexplicable threats and then violence. Has her last abandoned case- its tendrils of corruption reaching from Hackney to Chelsea- come back to haunt her? Witty, dark and classy, this fast-moving thriller doesn’t finish until the devastating truth is hounded down by the unstoppable Kate.

Bestselling romance editor Trisha Telep brings an exciting new element to the fast-growing sub-genre of steampunk, which bends and blends the old and the new in increasingly popular dark urban fantasies. Young heroes and heroines battle evil, in various forms with the help of super-technological or supernatural powers, while falling in and out of love.

Contributors include:

Ann Aguirre a bestselling author who writes urban fantasy (the Corine Solomon series from Roc), romantic science fiction (the Jax series from Ace), apocalyptic paranormal romance (as Ellen Connor, writing with Carrie Lofty, from Penguin), paranormal romantic suspense (as Ava Gray from Berkley), and post-apocalyptic dystopian young adult fiction (Razorland and Wireville coming in 2011 from Feiwel & Friends).

Tessa Gratton, her debut novel Blood Magic arrives in 2011 from Random House Children’s Books, followed by the companion Crow Magic in 2012.

Jaclyn Dolamore is the debut author of Magic Under Glass from Bloomsbury USA.

Lesley Livingston is the award-winning author of Wondrous Strange and Darklight, the first two books in the bestselling trilogy from HarperCollins.

Frewin Jones is the bestselling author of the Faerie Path series and the Warrior Princess books, among many others

Caitlin Kittredge is the author of the Iron Codex trilogy, a Lovecraftian steampunk adventure.

Dru Pagliassotti‘s first novel Clockwork Heart was one of the first in the rising new genre of steampunk romance and was named by Library Journal as one of the five steampunk novels to read in 2009.

Dia Reeves is the debut author of the critically acclaimed YA Bleeding Violet.

Michael Scott is the Irish-born, New York Times bestselling author of the six part epic fantasy series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.

Maria V. Snyder is the New York Times bestselling author of the Study series (Poison Study, Magic Study, and Fire Study) about a young woman forced to become a poison taster.

Tiffany Trent the author of the acclaimed YA dark fantasy series Hallowmere, which was an IndieBound Children’s Pick and a New York Public Library Book of the Teen Age 2008.

Kiersten White is the debut author of Paranormalacy, the first book in a new trilogy, which was published by HarperTeen in August of 2010.

Adrienne Kress, is the author of Alex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate.

Hugo Award-winning editor Gardner Dozois’ annual anthology has long been considered the standard by which other best-of-the-year SF collections are judged. After two decades’ worth of superlative science fiction, Dozois now presents a retrospective compilation culling from the last 20 years.

Here under one banner is some of the finest work by the genre’s leading authors, with a star-studded list of contributors that features among others: Stephen Baxter, Greg Bear, William Gibson, Terry Bisson, Greg Egan, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Reed, Robert Silverberg, Bruce Sterling , Charles Stross, Michael Swanwick, Gene Wolfe.

A number of the selections are now considered classics. Some notable stories include:

‘Blood Music’, Greg Bear’s Hugo-winning exploration of nanotechnology.

‘Bears Discover Fire’, Terry Bisson’s tongue-in-cheek consideration of future ursine evolution.

‘The Left Hand of Darkness’, Ursula K. Le Guin’s coming-of-age SF tale.

‘The Winter Market’, in which William Gibson returns to the subject that made him a cultural icon, cyberpunk.

With work spanning two decades, this is the most significant science fiction short story anthology published in years.

With one reckless, irresistible kiss, Dante binds Tess to himself for eternity…

He comes to her more dead than alive, a huge black-clad stranger mortally wounded and rapidly losing blood. As she struggles to save him, vet Tess Culver is unaware that the man calling himself Dante is no man at all but one of the Breed, vampire warriors engaged in a desperate battle. But in a single erotically-charged moment Tess is plunged into his world – a shifting, shadowed place where bands of Rogue vampires stalk the night, cutting a swathe of terror.

Haunted by visions of a dark future, Dante lives and fights like there is no tomorrow. Tess is a complication he does not need – and yet his touch has awakened in her hidden gifts and desires and a hunger she never knew she possessed… and bonded by blood, Dante and Tess must work together to overcome the deadliest of enemies.

A woman driven by blood. A man thirsting for vengeance…

As night falls, Claire Roth flees, driven from her home by a fiery threat that seems to come from hell itself. Then, from out the flames and ash, a vampire warrior emerges. He is Andreas Reichen, her one-time lover but now a stranger consumed by vengeance. Caught in the crossfire, Claire cannot escape his savage fury – or the hunger that plunges her into his world of eternal darkness and unending pleasure.

Nothing will stop Andreas from destroying the vampire responsible for slaughtering his Breed brethren… even if he must use his former lover as a pawn in his deadly mission. Claire can lead Andreas to the enemy he seeks but it is a journey fraught with danger – and deep desire. For Claire is the one woman Andreas should not crave, and the only one he’s ever loved. So a dangerous seduction begins – one which blurs the line between predator and prey, love and hate…

Is it naff to take a bottle of wine to a dinner party? Are red wine and cheese really a match? Should you stick to the house plonk in restaurants? What’s so funny about wine? Is it the fact that we take it so seriously?

Ned Halley’s affectionately irreverent wine jaunt unearths some of the quaint histories and dark secrets of many of the world’s most famous wines. Instead of lordly suggestions for the cellar, here is vulgar advice on investing in wine for profit.

Wine and health also comes under the spotlight: is it good for us or bad for us? And then there’s wine criticism: are writers who tell you what to drink, and what not to drink, simply insane? There’s a look, too, at wine marketing: are the biggest-selling brands as good as the hype?

‘Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us’ HILARY MANTEL

‘Mary Renault’s portraits of the ancient world are fierce, complex and eloquent, infused at every turn with her life-long passion for the Classics. Her characters live vividly both in their own time, and in ours’ MADELINE MILLER


Combining the scholarship of a historian with the imagination of a novelist, Mary Renault brings the ancient Greek stage thrillingly to life.

Set in fourth-century B.C. Greece, The Mask of Apollo is narrated by Nikeratos, a tragic actor who takes with him on all his travels a gold mask of Apollo, a relic of the theatre’s golden age, which is now past. At first his mascot, the mask gradually becomes his conscience, and he refers to it his gravest decisions, when he finds himself at the centre of a political crisis in which the philosopher Plato is also involved. Much of the action is set in Syracuse, where Plato’s friend Dion is trying to persuade the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger to accept the rule of law. Through Nikeratos’ eyes, the reader watches as the clash between the two unleashes all the pent-up violence in the city.

‘All my sense of the ancient world – its values, its style, the scent of its wars and passions – comes from Mary Renault. I turned to writing historical fiction because of something I learned from Renault: that it lets you shake off the mental shackles of your own era, all the categories and labels, and write freely about what really matters to you’ EMMA DONOGHUE

‘There’s much to wonder at in the way she fills in the large dark spaces where we know next to nothing about the times she describes . . . an important and wonderful writer . . . she set a course into serious-minded, psychologically intense historical fiction that today seems more important than ever’ – Sam Jordison, Guardian

By the author of Black Narcissus and The Diddakoi comes the moving tale of Dark Invader, a powerful racehorse.

‘[Godden’s] distinctive, poised and unsentimental books have never lost a shred of their almost hypnotic appeal’ ROSIE THOMAS, GUARDIAN

‘One of our best and most captivating novelists’ PHILIP HENSHER

‘[Godden has] a genius for storytelling’ EVENING STANDARD

‘All horses can walk – some badly, some well, but to a few is given a gift of movement feline in its grace, a slouching, flowing continuous movement that is a joy to watch. Dark Invader strode in glorious rhythm, his great shoulders rolling, muscles rippling along his flanks under the satin skin.’

In Calcutta, India, John Quillan cares for racehorses belonging to wealthy owners, and Mother Morag, who lives just down the road and leads a group of nuns working with Calcutta’s poor, loves to watch these beautiful animals in action.

Dark Invader is a beautifully bred racehorse, but after a disappointing first season he is sold in disgrace and shipped from England to Calcutta. With love and gentle handling, ‘Darkie’ wins the hearts of the people and becomes the firm favourite for India’s most famous race, the Viceroy Cup.

But three days before the race Dark Invader disappears. Can he be found before it is too late?

Follow Dark Invader’s journey, now available as a Virago Modern Classic.

‘Superb . . . the deceptively simple style conveys the dark undercurrents of the adult world’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘This country house novel about three upper-crust sisters growing up during the second world war is much darker than it sounds’ GUARDIAN

‘Seriously radiant’ THE TIMES

Born into an affluent family, Bonnie, Tor and Ula have been left to the feckless embrace of the cook and their nanny. Their father is dead. Their glamorous mother is away entertaining the troops.

When their infant brother falls ill and dies, the household disintegrates. In Tin Toys, Ula escapes with Cook, barely out of girlhood herself, and lands at the mansion of an enigmatic matriarch. In Unicorn Sisters, the three sisters are sent to a shabby English boarding school where the pupils are pitted against an anarchic gang of East End evacuees. A Bubble Garden finds the girls in Ireland, where they scrape a life in a crumbling, once-grand farmhouse, while their mother and her new husband are mired in their private traumas.

A uniquely compelling and powerful coming of age classic.

By the author of THE HANDMAID’S TALE and ALIAS GRACE

A beautifully bizarre assortment of short stories and prose poems. Writing on an eclectic range of subjects from ‘Bread’ and ‘Strawberries’, to ‘Fainting’ and ‘Women’s Novels’, Margaret Atwood brings her astonishing world view to the comings and goings of ordinary life. The pretentious male chef is taken down a peg, a gang of cynical five year olds concoct a poisonous brew; and knowing when to stop is of deadly importance in a game of Murder in the Dark.

*
Praise for Murder in the Dark:

These vignettes glow with the usual Atwood magic of intelligence … an exhilarating performance, full of sharp pleasures for the mind -BRITISH BOOK NEWS

‘A brilliant and witty writer’ –COSMOPOLITAN

‘Direct, unpretentious, humorous’ -SUNDAY TIMES

Alix, arrogant, middle-aged and angry comes home to the derelict port of Liverpool as her mother lies dying. Irritably resigned to living alone for the rest of her life she suddenly finds herself erotically attracted to a stranger. Joseph is an American architect who has come to the city to build a hotel. Refusing to accept that his wife has left him or the trauma of a war he once fought in, the question is whether these survivors of the battles of the Seventies are meant for each other or not. And what happened to a factory in Dresden which long ago made the perfect face cream . . .

‘Perhaps her most accessible novel to date … Grant’s prose is blunt, honest, yet often beautiful and bitingly funny. Equally comfortable discussing concepts of justice and grooming routinme, the voices Grant creates are striking and authentic. Her characters are irascible, witty, fierce, and full of the contradictions and blind spots that make them wholly human. This is a compelling and satisfying novel’ Rachel Seiffert, author of The Dark Room

On the eve of her wedding anniversary, Mary Gooch is waiting for her husband to come home, listening for his car along the dark, icy roads. As the night draws on, and he fails to appear, Mary reflects on the true nature of their marriage: the secrets, the silences, and the unmentionable yet inescapable fact that for each loss and disappointment, there has been a corresponding physical gain: the woman she once was is now imprisoned in mountainous flesh. The Wife’s Tale is the inspirational story of the journey Mary is finally forced to make across a continent, ostensibly in search of her husband, but eventually towards the self she has buried for too long.

‘A darkly comedic tale of adultery that features a dangerously “good” and disciplined heroine’ KIRKUS REVIEWS

‘Throughout her career Bawden has concentrated on the careful depiction of character, feelings and behaviour’ GUARDIAN

At fifteen, Daisy, confident and cherished, is appalled to hear that Ruth’s father locked her in the old garden ice house as a childhood punishment: no wonder her friend shelters in make believe. The revelation of that primitive cruelty cements a friendship in which protection plays no small part. Years later, middle aged, they remain close friends and live on the same street. So when Daisy’s husband dies suddenly, Ruth’s discovery that the marriage was unhappy is the first stage in the unravelling of the certainties she has wrapped around her adult life.

Friendship, love, marriage and above all, the scorching effects of adultery, come under the microscope in this dextrous novel. Journeying from a terrifying suburban household to its unexpected conclusion in the Egyptian Pharaoh’s tombs, The Ice House is startling, tragic and humorous by turns.