Harry Dresden?s life finally seems to be calming down?until a shadow from the past returns. Mab, monarch of the Sidhe Winter Court, calls in an old favor from Harry?one small favor that will trap him between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and that will strain his skills?and loyalties?to their very limits.
This year's award-winning authors include Jack McDevitt, James Patrick Kelly, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, and more. The anthology also features essays from celebrated science fiction authors Orson Scott Card and Mike Resnick.
When it comes to magic, skipping the directions, changing the ingredients, or garbling the words of a spell can lead to unusual consequences-sometimes dire, sometimes comical. Included in these stories are just a few of the possible results: a cybermancer has her spell disk corrupted by some unexpected input; two students brewing up spells outside the curriculum forgo a critical ingredient; a young woman orders a fairy-tale life, but forgets to read the fine print. Now they're really spellbound...
Beautiful celestial wizard Lucy has teamed up with the crazy fire wizard Natsu and his bizarre flying cat, Happy. Their job: to steal a book from the notorious Duke Everlue. But the eccentric Everlue has killed wizards before, and Lucy’s team is walking right into his death trap!
Cute girl wizard Lucy wants to join the Fairy Tail, a club for the most powerful wizards. But instead, her ambitions land her in the clutches of a gang of unsavory pirates led by a devious magician. Her only hope is Natsu, a strange boy she happens to meet on her travels. Natsu’s not your typical hero–he gets motion sickness, eats like a pig, and his best friend is a talking cat. With friends like this, is Lucy better off with her enemies?
Possessing an awesome power he is only beginning to understand, young Jair Ohmsford must summon the devastating yet darkly seductive magic of the wishsong on a fateful mission to save his friends . . . and protect the future from the forces of evil.
If you’ve never ventured into the wondrous world of Shannara, consider this an ideal opportunity. Prepare to enter the breathtaking realm of the Four Lands, where beings both noble and sinister have quested and clashed, crossed swords in the names of darkness and light, and engaged in adventures rich with mystery and majesty.
“Terry’s place is at the head of the fantasy world.”
–Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass
In the third book of the Hallowmere series, author Tiffany Trent weaves a dark tale of romance, deception, and dangerous fairies.
In Firestorm, the first book of the Caretaker Trilogy, seventeen-year-old Jack Danielson saved the world’s oceans, but at great personal cost – his parents were killed and everything he knew and believed in was turned upside down. Now Jack has come home to see P.J., his girlfriend and sole remaining touchstone. But she’s missing, and blame falls on Jack. On the run with Gisco, his crafty canine sidekick, Jack is literally caught up in a whirlwind as he travels to the heart of darkness to rescue P.J. – a journey that will bring him face-to-face with the father of his old nemesis, the colonel, aka the Dark Lord from the future. Jack’s quest becomes all the more complicated as he discovers that the only person who can stop the Dark Lord is another time traveler, the wizard Kidah, who has disappeared in the present.
Book 2 of the Caretaker Trilogy mixes heart-racing adventure with an urgent ecological warning about the fragility of the world’s rain forests and the importance of respect for indigenous peoples. Readers will be drawn into the vortex of the quest—whether or not they’re familiar with Book 1.
Emily and Adriane each have one thing Kara lacks―a magic gem. But when Kara finally finds a magic stone of her own―a diamond unicorn horn―it brings more trouble than the girls can handle. Pesky dragonflies start showing up everywhere and new Fairimentals appear, warning of danger. Worst of all, a band of terrifying monsters is stalking Kara. Overcoming these perils may bring the teens one step closer to Avalon, the source of all magic. But it may also cost one of them her life.
All That Glitters is the second book in Avalon: Web of Magic, a twelve-book fantasy series by Rachel Roberts for middle grade readers. Through their magical journey, the teenage heroines discover who they really are . . . and run into plenty of good guys, bad guys, and cute guys.
Avalon: Web of Magic Book 1, Circles in the Stream by Rachel Roberts
Three very different young teens, Emily, the shy one, Adriane, the outsider, and Kara, the power shopper, are all drawn to a secret place deep in the woods where they discover a portal to another world. Wondrous animals have emerged from the portal, desperately seeking the magic that will keep them alive. Though the animals are peaceful and good, what follows them through the portal is twisted and evil and bent on destroying them all.
The Fairimentals have chosen these three fourteen-year-olds to protect the magical animals. To save them and their world, the girls must overcome their differences and band together. They begin a perilous quest to discover Avalon, the lost, legendary home of magic, little knowing the terrible dangers they will face along the way.
With his uneasy suspicion that one of the sisters is a killer, Gabriel sets out to determine which. But the more entangled in the case he becomes, the more deeply he is drawn into the sisters' entrancing world-losing hold of reality even as he falls into mortal danger...
One day the old woman gives Audrey a peculiar bronze pen and tells her to "use it wisely and to good purpose." It turns out to be just perfect for writing her stories with. But as Audrey writes, odd things start happening. Did Beowulf, her dog, just speak to her? And what is that bumping under her bed at night? It seems that whatever she writes with the pen comes true. However, things don't always happen in the way that she wants or expects. In fact, it's quite difficult to predict what writing with the pen will do. Could the pen be more of a curse than a gift? Or will Audrey be able to rewrite the future in the way that she wishes---and save her father's life?