Aurelius Magnus has not yet been stolen by the Sun and Moon. He has not yet led the Empire of Astandalas into what will later be hailed as a golden age, nor met the man whose friendship and loyalty will be celebrated in legend for two thousand years. He has not yet even earned the epithet "Magnus." He is only Aurelius, twenty-one years old and already six years an emperor. War is all he has ever known. Until now.

Friends by chance—or is it fate? Damian Raske and Jullanar Thistlethwaite are about as different as can be. Damian is a young swordsman, dreaming of being the best in the world, hardly aware of what lies beyond the outskirts of his city, let alone that there is a great empire on the other side of the horizon.Jullanar is a gently-raised young woman from deep inside the Empire of Astandalas, aware that there are worlds beyond its sway but hardly daring to dream she'd ever see outside of her own country, let alone beyond the empire's borders. And yet they both dream of friendship, of adventure, of what else there might be. And it's Jullanar whose exam results turn out to matter in a way no one could expect. The first book of The Red Company, because even the greatest of folk heroes have to start somewhere.

Magic is out of fashion.Except, obviously, at Winterturn. Winterturn in Ragnor Bella is a holiday for family, feasting, and a few religious festivities. Jemis Greenwing and Mr. Dart are both quite ready for a quiet week or two after their adventures going to and coming home from Orio City. Jemis in particular is looking forward to the first Winterturn spent with his father since he was a child. Then the fairy fox shows up. Wild magic. Family secrets. Gifts from unknown admirers. Sainthood. And that's before the pageant. Book Six of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners—and mischief.

Magic is out of fashion. Orio City is where that's decided.When his best friend Mr. Dart unexpectedly needs to make an urgent trip to Orio City, Jemis Greenwing's immediate response to ask when.  He's willing to make up to his grandmother so she will lend them her falarode, he's willing to offer to run the errands of half the barony, and he's certainly willing to spend a week or so away from the gossips of Ragnor Bella.It's such a pity that Jemis and Mr. Dart are more than halfway to Orio City before Jemis remembers that his vindictive ex-lover Lark is a rising star in the criminal courts of Orio City.  It's an even greater pity when they realize just what her new position is in the legally instituted court there.What with the dragon Jemis slayed a month ago, his consequent ascension to the position of Viscount St-Noire, and his father's very recent second return from the dead, to say nothing of that still-famous play from the summer, Three Years...

Artorin Damara, last Emperor of Astandalas, is in need of a new secretary. It has been three years since he woke from a magical coma caused by the collapse of his empire, and he can barely acknowledge his own existence, let alone articulate what he needs from someone else. Enter Cliopher sayo Mdang, Fifth Degree Secretary of the Imperial Bureaucratic Service, and to everyone's surprise the apocalypse ... ends. This novella is set on Zunidh in the universe of the Nine Worlds. It is best read after The Hands of the Emperor.

The greatest poet of the Empire of Astandalas was widely considered the infamous outlaw Fitzroy Angursell. Almost all of his poems and songs were banned, but that had the tendency merely to encourage everyone to read them. Hilarious, pointed, and scathingly topical, one of the games of all levels of society was to guess who they were truly about.After the Fall of the Empire, both the songs and the old stories are still sung, still illegal, and still a mixed blessing. It was not until his nephew tried to impress him that Zorey, formerly a soldier of the Emperor, finally told the story of how he got the scar on his face and earned the dubious gift of Fitzroy Angursell's particular brand of immortality.His nephew wasn't expecting the story. Zorey wasn't expecting the response.

In the north of Ysthar, past the edge of the Empire of Astandalas, there is the tundra, and beyond the tundra, the great wall of ice. No one goes there, save for a few hunters after mammoth ivory or furs, unless it is to look upon the Ice and then, suitably impressed, turn back to be awed by the wall of magic that is the border of the Empire. But there are those for whom the Wild is not only out there but a magic within their blood, and for them—or at least for Terec, once of Lund and now only of the wastelands—the Ice is a wall that might, perhaps, contain a door ... Book 2 of Terec of Lund, to be read after Terec and the Wild.

The long awaited sequel to THE HANDS OF THE EMPEROR!Cliopher Mdang has been appointed Viceroy of Zunidh by his beloved Radiancy, the Last Emperor, who has now left him behind in the Palace to safeguard the world during his absence on a quest to find an appropriately magical heir. When he returns, he will abdicate, and Cliopher will at last retire, satisfied with having achieved most of his life's political goals—even if his long-suppressed personal dreams are starting to bubble up.(Surely he used to have hobbies besides running the government?)All he has to do is wait patiently for his lord's return... until adventure quite literally hits him from behind, and what was once safely hypothetical becomes intensely real.Cliopher has always followed the stars of his chosen course: the epic oral histories of his people, the poetry of the rebel poet Fitzroy Angursell, decades of devotion and service to his Radiancy... They were enough to change the world. But are...

Magic is out of fashion. Orio City is where that's decided.When his best friend Mr. Dart unexpectedly needs to make an urgent trip to Orio City, Jemis Greenwing's immediate response to ask when.  He's willing to make up to his grandmother so she will lend them her falarode, he's willing to offer to run the errands of half the barony, and he's certainly willing to spend a week or so away from the gossips of Ragnor Bella.It's such a pity that Jemis and Mr. Dart are more than halfway to Orio City before Jemis remembers that his vindictive ex-lover Lark is a rising star in the criminal courts of Orio City.  It's an even greater pity when they realize just what her new position is in the legally instituted court there.What with the dragon Jemis slayed a month ago, his consequent ascension to the position of Viscount St-Noire, and his father's very recent second return from the dead, to say nothing of that still-famous play from the summer, Three Years Gone: the Tragicomedy of the Traitor of Loe, it's really too much to hope for that Jemis will be able to spend even three days in the old capital incognito.University students. Bear baiting. Unexpected relations. Wild magic. Literary criticism. Kittens. And always that whisper from the highwaymen of the Arguty Forest that someone's death is on the line ...Book Four of Greenwing & Dart, fantasies of manners--and mischief.

One death, two victims – one seen, one hidden A thrilling rollercoaster, combining a multi-layered crime drama with an emotionally charged family saga, Still Small Voice looks at a fractured marriage and the fatal consequences of love, lust, and obsession.It's a sweltering August day in 1998, and the body of a missing woman, best-selling author Nicky Butler, is discovered in an empty house in South West London. DI John Burroughs and his tenacious partner, DS Lucy Burton, are assigned to the case and it is immediately clear that all is not what it seems. Do they suspect Nicky's controlling husband, James Scott, a hundred miles away in a dreary hotel room, contemplating a grim future, or the mysterious man seen entering the house the previous evening?As the detectives delve deeper into the investigation without a clear suspect, nothing seems to add up and there is a strong chance they will convict the wrong man. Why was Nicky at her...

Five invitations into the realms of poetry to five very different people, set in a world not altogether dissimilar to our own, resonant with myth and magic. These are standalone tales associated with Till Human Voices Wake Us. Contains: Scheherezade: On the thousand and first night of Scheherezade the Storyteller's marriage, things do not go at all as she had hoped—nor do they end as she had expected. Rook: The Prince of the Fairies is just out looking for mischief. That's not what he finds. Not Far From the Tree: The world is full of unexpected stories. For Nora, hers is intricately tied with the old apple tree next to the village green. They say Eve fell to the temptation of an apple, but for Nora and her brother Charles, the apple just might be a vehicle for grace. Blue Moon Over Pincher Creek: Tyler's an ordinary high school student in Pincher Creek, Alberta. On the...

The Cavalier Conju enazo Argellian an Vilius—Conju to his friends, or he would be if any of them had survived the Fall of Astandalas—survived the cataclysmic destruction of the Empire of Astandalas in perfectly good health, thank you very much. If he spent the year (or hundred years) afterwards partying while the world burned ... well, he has always considered himself a man of fashion, and that was very definitely the fashion. Until the Emperor woke up. At which point Conju wondered whether he might conceivably want to consider the other options. Even if cataloguing storerooms is a bit of a pain when you don't actually know what anything is. Sadly, neither perfumery nor fashion are particularly useful skills after a magical apocalypse. Unless you can finesse your way into attending said Emperor, that is ... The Game of Courts is a companion novella to The Hands of the Emperor, though it can be read as a standalone. It takes place...

Jack Greenwing is good at scouting. He's renowned for being able to hold on in battle long past bravery. He was once given a trophy for his courage by the hand of the Emperor himself.At Loe, where the Stone Speakers can call down avalanches and landslides, he was sent out on a scouting mission as a siege closed in on his company. He returns to see it being lifted because of treachery, and is there to witness the five remaining members of the command staff be led off in chains into the mountains, far from the border of the Empire. He once held a border until the rest of his army joined him: nothing will stop him from attempting a rescue, though snow is falling in the mountains and he must fight those who can walk through stone. "Stone Speaks to Stone" is a standalone short story related to the Greenwing & Dart series. If you've read those, it is the true tale of what happened to Jemis' father at Loe; if you haven't, Greenwing & Dart tells the story of what happens to Jack's son Jemis ten years or so after this story takes place.

A young man without a name lives in a tower at the edge of the world. He is content with the orderly rituals and freedom to study wild magic that is his lot—or he was content, until one day he spies something in a bird's nest outside the tower window. He's never left the tower before, but curiosity can be stronger even than enchantments ... A standalone novella set before the Fall of the Empire of Astandalas, in the quiet beginnings before the coming of the Red Company.

A retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in a mostly-real modern-day London. Behind the corners of our world, there is magic. As the Lord of Ysthar, Raphael is responsible for it. An honest man, his lies are legion. An infamous recluse, his social circle includes Scheherezade, Shakespeare, and the Crown Prince of Faerie. He is a great mage to his enemies, a movie star to strangers, and a hundred pseudonymous half-lives to history. He is dutifully trying to prevent the end of the world when his long-lost twin brother Kasian gate-crashes his life. Raphael is prepared to sacrifice his soul, his reputation, and his crown to save his beloved Ysthar. Saving himself is another matter entirely. There is magic. It’s not enough.