National Network for Equitable Library Service

Anyone can plot a coup or fire an assassin' s bullet. But in a world of muskets and magic, it takes considerably more to seize the throne. The ailing King of the Vordan lies on his deathbed. When he dies, his daughter, Raesinia Orboan, will become the first Queen Regnant in centuries-- and a ripe target for the ambitious men who seek to control her. The most dangerous of these is Duke Orlanko, Minister of Information and master of the secret police. Having meticulously silenced his adversaries through intimidation, imprisonment, and execution, Orlanko is the most feared man in the kingdom.

Fourth in the "audacious and subversive"* Shadow Campaigns novels, following The Price of Valor, The Shadow Throne, and the acclaimed The Thousand Names. After their defeats at the hands of general Janus bet Vhalnich, the opposing powers have called all sides to the negotiating table, in hopes of securing an end to the war. Queen Raesinia of Vordan is anxious to see the return of peace, but Janus insists that any peace with the Sworn Church of Elysium is doomed to fail. Soldiers Marcus d'Ivoire and Winter Ihernglass find themselves caught between their general and their queen.

Warrior Alyssa ana'Raisa would do anything to protect her home, the Fells, and her legacy, the Gray Wolf line. But as a prisoner of Empress Celestine, Lyss is forced to turn her fearsome talents as an army commander against her beloved homeland. Refusal would swiftly lead to her death, and her death would end the Gray Wolf line.

Brienna is a mistress of knowledge and is beginning to settle into her role as the daughter of the once disgraced lord, Davin MacQuinn. Though she'd just survived a revolution that will return a queen to the throne, she faces yet another challenge: acceptance by the MacQuinns. But as Queen Isolde Kavanagh's closest confidant, she'll have to balance serving her father's House as well as her country. Resistance is rumbling among the old regime's supporters, who are desperate to find a weakness in the rebels' forces.

The eighth novel in James S. A. Corey's New York Times bestselling Expanse series--now a major television series. Thirteen hundred gates have opened to solar systems around the galaxy. But as humanity builds its interstellar empire in the alien ruins, the mysteries and threats grow deeper. In the dead systems where gates lead to stranger things than alien planets, Elvi Okoye begins a desperate search to discover the nature of a genocide that happened before the first human beings existed, and to find weapons to fight a war against forces at the edge of the imaginable.

The breathtaking debut from acclaimed short story writer Derek Kunsken. Belisarius is a quantum man, an engineered Homo quantus who fled the powerful insight of dangerously addictive quantum senses. He found a precarious balance as a con man, but when a client offers him untold wealth to move a squadron of warships across an enemy wormhole, he must embrace his birthright to even try. In fact, the job is so big that he'll need a crew built from all the new sub-branches of humanity.

For centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. But the power of the Raven is weakening. It is into this unrest that the warrior Eolo arrives, seeking to reclaim his city. He discovers that the Raven's Tower holds a secret. Its foundations conceal a dark history that has been waiting to reveal itself and set in motion a chain of events that could destroy Iraden forever.

Rumo is a little Wolperting, a creature somewhere between a deer and a dog, who will one day become a great hero. Armed with his talking sword, he must fight his way through the Overworld and the Netherworld.

The thrilling history of the Targaryens comes to life in this masterly work by the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the inspiration for HBO's Game of Thrones. With all the fire and fury fans have come to expect from internationally bestselling author George R. R. Martin, this is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens in Westeros. Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen-the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria-took up residence on Dragonstone.

#1 New York Times bestselling author of the House of Night series, P.C. Cast, brings us Wind Rider, an epic fantasy set in a world where humans, their animal allies, and the earth itself has been drastically changed. A world filled with beauty and danger and cruelty' Mari, Nik, and their newly formed Pack are being hunted. Thaddeus and the God of Death will stop at nothing until they are obliterated from the earth. But Mari and Nik have one goal: to reach the plains of the Wind Riders, in order to band together to stop Thaddeus from destroying all that Mari and Nik hold dear.