A wonderful collection, brilliant and often moving ... Both mind-expanding and cosmic while utterly rooted in our urban reality'' NEIL GAIMAN ''One of the great fiction minds of his generation'' ROLLING STONE In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work and features many never-before-published pieces, international bestselling author and legendary creator of From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and other modern classics, Alan Moore, presents nine stories full of wonder and strangeness, each taking us deeper into the fantastical underside of reality.
In A Hypothetical Lizard, two concubines in a brothel for fantastical specialists fall in love, with tragic ramifications. In Not Even Legend, a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In Illuminations, a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella What We Can Know About Thunderman, which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business.
From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that - a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.
''One of the most significant fiction writers in English ... Moore''s influence can be felt everywhere-in our literature, on our screens, in our politics'' GUARDIAN
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'The new Game of Thrones ' Stylist 'Puts Samantha Shannon in the same league as Robin Hobb and George R.R. Martin. Shannon is a master of dragons' Starburst 'Epic fantasy with added dragons. A blockbuster' Guardian , Best Science Fiction and Fantasy An enthralling, epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons - and the women who must lead the fight to save it.
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tane has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
The stunning third book in the sexy, action-packed Crescent City series, following the global bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath.
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she''s going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that''s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.
Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he''s in the Asteri''s dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce''s fate. He''s desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri''s leash, his hands are quite literally tied.
In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas''s Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt''s world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.>
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022 FINALIST FOR THE URSULA LE GUIN PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022 WATERSTONES AND ESQUIRE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 ''Haunting and luminous . An astonishing debut'' - Alan Moore, creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta ''A powerfully moving and thought provoking read. At times sublime, strange and deeply human'' Adrian Tchaikovsky, bestselling author of the Children of Time series Siberia, 2031. After a virus, unearthed from melting permafrost, unleashes a deadly plague upon humanity, those left alive are forced to adapt to a new world, and do so in myriad moving and inventive ways. Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects - a pig - develops human speech; and a widowed painter and her teenage granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.
A story of unshakeable hope that seamlessly crosses literary lines, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humankind endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world.
Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible. [ How High We Go in the Dark ] reaches far beyond our stars while its heart remains rooted to Earth, and reminds us that our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of our world - Samantha Shannon, author of The Priory of the Orange Tree
A rebel who becomes a queen The amazing third book in the bestselling Bone Season series - a ground-breaking, dystopian fantasy of extraordinary imagination Following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London's criminal population.
But, having turned her back on Jaxon Hall and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilising the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.
Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it.
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'The new Game of Thrones' Stylist 'Puts Samantha Shannon in the same league as Robin Hobb and George R.R. Martin. Shannon is a master of dragons' Starburst 'Epic fantasy with added dragons. A blockbuster' Guardian, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy An enthralling, epic fantasy about a world on the brink of war with dragons - and the women who must lead the fight to save it.
A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens.
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door.
Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
Across the dark sea, Tane has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel.
Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
Step back into the enchanting world of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street . This extraordinary sequel takes readers to Japan, where time, destiny and love collide to electrifying effect For Thaniel Steepleton, an unexpected posting to Tokyo can't come at a better moment. The London fog has made him ill and doctor's orders are to get out.
His brief is strange: the staff at the British Legation have been seeing ghosts, and his first task is to find out what's going on. But staying with his closest friend Keita Mori in Yokohama, Thaniel starts to experience ghostly happenings himself. For reasons he won't say, Mori is frightened. Then he vanishes.
Meanwhile, something strange is happening in a frozen labour camp in northern Japan. Takiko Pepperharrow, an old friend of Mori's, must investigate.
As ghosts appear across Tokyo and the weather turns bizarrely electrical, Thaniel grows convinced that it all has something to do with Mori's disappearance - and that Mori might be in far more trouble than any of them first thought.
