Rejected by their own kind for bearing the mark of the Shadow Monarch, the Iron Elves chose instead to serve with the human armies of the Calahrian Empire, hoping through their dedication and discipline to wipe out the stain of their birth. Their reputation is legendary -- until their commander, Konowa Swiftdragon, takes it upon himself -- for the best of reasons -- to assassinate the Viceroy. Court-martialled and exiled to the forest he despises, his beloved regiment disgraced, dishonoured and disbanded, Konowa finds himself suddenly recalled and ordered to re-form the Iron Elves for one last reconnaissance mission. But the new Iron Elves are not at all the same as they were before, and the mission is a suicidal one, with more at stake than Konowa could possibly have imagined. For the Shadow Monarch and her allies have harnessed destructive forces with the power to tear worlds apart -- and those who bear her mark have a destiny greater than they know. So begins an heroic journey in the company of a motley band of misfits, rebels and outcasts, with a central character whose engaging, brilliantly realised blend of cynicism, dry humour, duty and anguish make him unlike any other in fantasy fiction.

Six months in the Deep Dark. Four different women. One man discovers what it means to be a spacer. It's a time of change on the Lois McKendrick. Sarah Krugg joins the crew and Ishmael Wang moves to Environmental. After getting accustomed to life aboard a solar clipper, Ishmael must learn a whole new set of skills, face his own fears and doubts, and try to balance love and loss in the depths of space. Both Ishmael and Sarah must learn to live by the mantra, "Trust Lois." For Sarah, there is the hope of escaping a horrifying past. For Ishmael, he must discover what type of man he wants to become and learn that his choices have consequences. Return with the crew of the SC Lois McKendrick, and set sail in the next installment of the Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper. All your favorites return: Ish, Pip, Cookie, Brill, Diane, and Big Bad Bev. You might even discover some new friends as you travel among the stars.

The flame of love burns bright in the second book of Sharon M. Draper’s award-winning Hazelwood High trilogy. When Gerald was a child he was fascinated by fire. But fire is dangerous and powerful, and tragedy strikes. His substance-addicted mother is taken from him. Then he loses the loving generosity of a favorite aunt, and a brutal stepfather with a flaming temper and an evil secret makes his life miserable. The one bright light in Gerald's life is his little half sister, Angel, whom he struggles to protect from her father, who is abusing her. Somehow Gerald manages to finds success as a member of the Hazelwood Tigers basketball team, and Angel develops her talents as a dancer, despite the trouble that still haunts them. And Gerald learns, painfully, that young friends can die and old enemies must be faced. In the end he must stand up to his stepfather alone in a blazing confrontation. In this second book of the Hazelwood High trilogy, Sharon M. Draper has woven characters and events from Tears of a Tiger in an unflinchingly realistic portrayal of poverty and child abuse. It is an inspiring story of a young man who rises above the tragic circumstances of his life by drawing on the love and strength of family and friends.

The next book in the Masters & Mages series that started with Cold Iron, from the master of fantasy Miles Cameron. Only fools think war is simple or glorious. On the magic-drenched battlefield, information is the lifeblood of victory, and Aranthur is about to discover that carrying messages, scouting the enemy, keeping his nerve, and passing on orders is more dangerous, and more essential, than an inexperienced soldier could imagine . . . especially when everything starts to go wrong. Masters & MagesCold IronDark ForgeBright Steel For more from Miles Cameron, check out: The Traitor Son Cycle The Red Knight The Fell Sword The Dread Wyrm The Plague of Swords The Fall of Dragons

National Bestseller “A well-researched and well-told epic history. The Dark Queens brings these courageous, flawed, and ruthless rulers and their distant times back to life.”--Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Figures The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule. Brunhild was a foreign princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet-in sixth-century Merovingian France, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport-these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war-against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths-one gentle, the other horrific-their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture's stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.

Bones jutted from the sand at angles—not odd angles, though, for that would suggest that there were ways bones could protrude that made sense—and the eyes of those still living stared and saw nothing. Amidst a scene of carnage on a desert battlefield blanketed in metallic snow, Major Konowa Swift Dragon sees his future, and it is one drenched in shadow and blood. Never mind that he has won a grand victory for the Calahrian Empire. He came here in search of his lost regiment of elves, while the Imperial Prince came looking for the treasures of a mystical library, and both ventures have failed. But Konowa knows, as do the Iron Elves—both living and dead—that another, far more important battle now looms before them. The campaign in the desert was only the latest obstacle on the twisted, darkening path leading inexorably to the Hyntaland, and the final confrontation with the dreaded Shadow Monarch. In this third novel of musket and magic in Chris Evans’s Iron Elves saga, Konowa’s ultimate journey is fraught with escalating danger. A vast, black forest finds a new source of dark power, spawning creatures even more monstrous than the blood trees from which they evolve. The maniacally unstable former emissary of the Shadow Monarch hungers for revenge, leading an army of ravenous beasts bent on utterly destroying the Iron Elves. A reluctant hero, Private Alwyn Renwar, struggles to maintain his connection to this world and that of the loyalty of the shades of the dead. And in a maze of underground tunnels, Visyna Tekoy, whom Konowa counts among those he has loved and lost, fights for her life against the very elves he so desperately wants to find. And so Konowa sets off from this Canyon of Bones, pursuing his freedom from a curse that has cast his life in darkness. For though his long, violent trek may indeed lead him to his destiny, he is ill prepared for the discovery he will make . . . with the fate of the Iron Elves, and the world, hinging on the courage of one wrathful elf.