The Promised Lie
Page 39
And yet, he had to take action. There was no one else left.
Gritting his teeth, he called for his servants and started to issue orders. There was no point in delay, even though he’d hoped he could remain in the Golden City for the next few years. He’d have to walk through the tunnels to Knawel Haldane and catch an iron dragon north to Ida. He had no idea what sort of reception he’d get, when he reached the mountainous kingdom. It was quite possible he’d be told to depart at once. The Last Empress didn’t welcome guests.
But he had to try.
What else could he do?
End of Book One
Elsewhen Press
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Bookworm series by Christopher Nuttall
Bookworm
Elaine, an inexperienced witch in Golden City, has her life turned upside down when she triggers a magical trap and ends up with all the knowledge in the Great Library stuffed inside her head. Avoiding the Inquisition she tries to understand what has happened to her. But she is a pawn in the dark plans of one who wants the Grand Sorcerer’s power.
Bookworm won the Gold Award in the Adult Fiction category of the 2013 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards
ebook, paperback (368pp)
Visit bit.ly/Bookworm-Nuttall
Bookworm II – The Very Ugly Duckling
Not every ugly duckling becomes a swan …
In the wake of the disastrous attack on the Golden City, Lady Light Spinner has become Grand Sorceress and Elaine, the Bookworm, has been settling into her positions as Head Librarian and Privy Councillor. But any hope of vanishing into her books is negated when a new magician of staggering power appears in the city, one whose abilities seem to defy the known laws of magic.
ebook, paperback (432pp)
Visit bit.ly/Bookworm2-Nuttall
Bookworm III – The Best Laid Plans
Elaine and Johan prepare to leave Golden City, with Daria and Cass, to search for the Witch-King. But Elaine is arrested on the orders of a new Emperor, puppet of the Witch-King. She must escape and destroy him. Privy Councillors and Heads of the Great Houses have bowed to the Emperor. Only Elaine and her friends can prevent an all-out war.
ebook, paperback (400pp)
Visit bit.ly/Bookworm3
Bookworm IV – Full Circle
Until now the Witch-King had remained hidden as a lich. But Elaine was intent on his destruction. Bonded to the unknowingly powerful Johan, she was the only other magician who understood the deeper layers of magic. As they slowly made their way towards the catacombs in Ida where his lich was hiding, he had to rely on the new Emperor to stop them.
ebook, paperback (416pp)
visit bit.ly/Bookworm4
Available in audiobook from Trantor.
The Royal Sorceress series
Christopher Nuttall
The Royal Sorceress series will certainly appeal to all fans of steampunk, alternative history, and fantasy. As well as the fun of the ‘what-ifs’ delivered by the rewriting of our past, it delights with an Empire empowered by magic – all the better for being one we can recognise.
The Royal Sorceress
Book I of the Royal Sorceress series
1830, in an alternate Britain where the ‘scientific’ principles of magic, discovered 60 years previously, allowed the British to prevent American Independence. The ageing Royal Sorcerer, Master Thomas, must find a successor: a Master of all the known magical powers. There’s only 1 candidate, who has displayed such a talent from an early age. A candidate perfect in all ways but one: the Royal College of Sorcerers has never admitted a girl before.
ebook, paperback (400pp)
The Great Game
Book II of the Royal Sorceress series
After the uprising in London, Lady Gwendolyn Crichton is settling into her new position as Royal Sorceress and fighting the prejudice against her gender and age that seeks to prevent her from fulfilling her responsibilities. But when a senior magician is murdered in a locked room and Gwen is charged with finding the culprit, her inquiries lead her into a web of intrigue that combines international politics, widespread aristocratic blackmail, gambling dens and personal vendettas... and some of her discoveries hit dangerously close to home.
ebook, paperback (400pp)
Necropolis
Book III of the Royal Sorceress series
War with France is imminent. Lady Gwendolyn should be firmly focussed on preparing the Royal Sorcerers Corps, but her adopted daughter Olivia is kidnapped. When Intelligence establishes that Russian agents took Olivia, an incognito Gwen joins a diplomatic mission to Russia where she discovers that a deranged Tsar’s plans threaten the entire world.
ebook, paperback (416pp)
Sons of Liberty
Book IV of the Royal Sorceress series
England has been invaded, and Gwen is helping to fight off French magicians. After accidentally dementing an incompetent major, Gwen is sent to New York to train local magicians. She sets off with Irene and Raechel, a naval squadron and a regiment of reinforcements. But even before they reach New York they meet armed opposition.
ebook, paperback (416pp)
visit bit.ly/RoyalSorceress
A Life Less Ordinary
Christopher Nuttall
There is magic in the world, hiding in plain sight. If you search for it, you will find it, or it will find you. Welcome to the magical world.
Dizzy expected nothing from life, until she stumbled from the mundane world into the magical world, an alternate reality where dragons flew through the sky and the Great Powers watched over the world. Forgetting her old life, Dizzy became apprenticed to one of the most powerful magicians in all of reality and a bright future beckoned. But powerful dark forces had their eye on the young and inexperienced magician, intending to use her for the ultimate act of evil – the apocalyptic destruction of all reality. Now, Dizzy must beat them. If she cannot, both the magical and mundane worlds will be consumed in fire.
ebook, paperback (336pp)
visit bit.ly/ALLO-Nuttall
The Mind’s Eye
Christopher Nuttall
For centuries, men have been dreaming of telepathy, the power to read and influence the minds of others. Now, all around the world, telepaths are finally starting to appear. Men and women are developing awesome powers with the potential to dramatically change society. Governments are soon starting to become aware of them, even recruiting them, while striving to keep knowledge of their abilities hidden from the general public. Academic researchers too are discovering telepaths and it isn’t long before awareness of their existence starts to spread. But non-telepaths, ordinary people, don’t want to have their minds read or controlled; the telepaths soon find themselves widely regarded with fear and hatred. Inevitably, some of them want to fight back.
ebook, paperback (352pp)
visit bit.ly/MindsEye-Nuttall
SUFFICIENTLY ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
THE FIRST BOOK IN THE INVERSE SHADOWS UNIVERSE
CHRISTOPHER NUTTALL
For the post-singularity Confederation, manipulating the quantum foam – the ability to alter the base code of the universe itself and achieve transcendence – is the holy grail of science. But it seems an impossible dream until their scouts encounter Darius, a lost colony world whose inhabitants have apparently discarded the technology that brought them to the planet in order to adopt a virtually feudal culture. On Darius, the ruling elite exhibits abilities that defy the accepted laws of physics. They can manipulate the quantum foam!
Desperate to understand what is happening on Darius, the Confederation dispatches a stealth team to infiltrate the plane
t's society and discover the truth behind their strange abilities. But they will soon realise that the people on Darius are not all the simple folk that they seem – and they are sitting on a secret that threatens the entire universe ...
ebook, paperback (336pp)
visit bit.ly/SAT-Nuttall
Elsewhen Press
Existence is Elsewhen
Twenty stories from twenty great authors
including
Christopher Nuttall
John Gribbin
Rhys Hughes
Christopher Nuttall
Douglas Thompson
The title Existence is Elsewhen paraphrases the last sentence of André Breton's 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism, perfectly summing up the intent behind this anthology of stories from a wonderful collection of authors. Different worlds... different times. It's what Elsewhen Press has been about since we launched our first title in 2011.
Here, we present twenty science fiction stories for you to enjoy. We are delighted that headlining this collection is the fantastic John Gribbin, with a worrying vision of medical research in the near future. Future global healthcare is the theme of J A Christy’s story; while the ultimate in spare part surgery is where Dave Weaver takes us. Edwin Hayward’s search for a renewable protein source turns out to be digital; and Tanya Reimer’s story with characters we think we know gives us pause for thought about another food we take for granted. Evolution is examined too, with Andy McKell’s chilling tale of what states could become if genetics are used to drive policy. Similarly, Robin Moran’s story explores the societal impact of an undesirable evolutionary trend; while Douglas Thompson provides a truly surreal warning of an impending disaster that will reverse evolution, with dire consequences.
On a lighter note, we have satire from Steve Harrison discovering who really owns the Earth (and why); and Ira Nayman, who uses the surreal alternative realities of his Transdimensional Authority series as the setting for a detective story mash-up of Agatha Christie and Dashiel Hammett. Pursuing the crime-solving theme, Peter Wolfe explores life, and death, on a space station; while Stefan Jackson follows a police investigation into some bizarre cold-blooded murders in a cyberpunk future. Going into the past, albeit an 1831 set in the alternate Britain of his Royal Sorceress series, Christopher Nuttall reports on an investigation into a girl with strange powers.
Strange powers in the present-day is the theme for Tej Turner, who tells a poignant tale of how extra-sensory perception makes it easier for a husband to bear his dying wife’s last few days. Difficult decisions are the theme of Chloe Skye’s heart-rending story exploring personal sacrifice. Relationships aren’t always so close, as Susan Oke’s tale demonstrates, when sibling rivalry is taken to the limit. Relationships are the backdrop to Peter R. Ellis’s story where a spectacular mid-winter event on a newly-colonised distant planet involves a Madonna and Child. Coming right back to Earth and in what feels like an almost imminent future, Siobhan McVeigh tells a cautionary tale for anyone thinking of using technology to deflect the blame for their actions. Building on the remarkable setting of Pera from her LiGa series, and developing Pera’s legendary Book of Shadow, Sanem Ozdural spins the creation myth of the first light tree in a lyrical and poetic song. Also exploring language, the master of fantastika and absurdism, Rhys Hughes, extrapolates the way in which language changes over time, with an entertaining result.
ebook, paperback (320pp)
visit bit.ly/ExistenceIsElsewhen
Don’t Look Back
John Gribbin
“A real scientist writing science-fiction with real science – what more could one ask?
John Gribbin is a visionary, and one heck of a good storyteller.”
– Robert J. Sawyer
Hugo Award-winning author of QUANTUM NIGHT
Retrospective SF short story collection from the master science writer
John Gribbin, widely regarded as one of the best science writers of the 20th century, has also, unsurprisingly, been writing science fiction for many years. While his novels are well-known, his short stories are perhaps less so. He has also written under pseudonyms. Here, for the first time, is the definitive collection of John’s short stories. Many were originally published in Analog and other magazines. Some were the seeds of subsequent novels. As well as 23 Science Fiction short stories, three of which John wrote with his son Ben, this collection includes two Science Fact essays on subjects beloved of science fiction authors and readers. In one essay, John provides scientifically accurate DIY instructions for creating a time machine; and in the other, he argues that the Moon is, in fact, a Babel Fish!
The stories, many written at a time when issues such as climate change were taken less seriously, now seem very relevant again in an age of dubious politicians. What underpins all of them, of course, is a grounding in solid science. But they are also laced with a dry and subtle wit, which will not come as a surprise to anyone who has ever met John at a science fiction convention or elsewhere. He is, however, not averse to a good pun, as evidenced by a song he co-wrote for the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band: The Holey Cheeses of Nazareth.
Despite the exhortation of this collection’s title, this is a perfect opportunity to look back at John’s short stories. If you’ve never read any of his fiction before, now you have the chance to acquaint yourself with a body of work that, while being very much of its time, is certainly not in any way out of date.
With a cover especially created by legendary space artist David A. Hardy.
ebook, paperback (272pp)
visit bit.ly/DontLookBackJohnGribbin
The Ghost in You
A first-hand account from beyond the grave
Katrina Mountfort
What do you do if you’re dead but haven’t ‘moved on’?
You keep finding yourself back where you died, with very little control over when; sometimes you can be away for days, weeks or even months, and then you’re back. Between times, when you’re ‘away’, where do you go, what do you do? You’ve seen some other ghosts asleep at their graves, but you don’t even know where your own grave is.
The living shiver if they walk through you, but they can neither see nor hear you. With practice you can pass through walls and doors, but curiously you can sit on a park bench without falling through it, climb stairs, even lie on a bed. You’re stuck in the clothes you were wearing when you died, at the age you died. Waiting.
Then, after years of this intermittent existence, you realise what you have been waiting for, what it is that you have to do in order to finally move on. Just as you have found the best reason to stay.
That’s what happened to Rowena…
A ghost story told from the perspective of the ghost herself, The Ghost in You is a first-hand account, from beyond the grave, by an innocent girl who dies before her time and tries to make sense of what is happening to her, while helping her friends and discovering her purpose.
ebook, paperback (184pp)
visit bit.ly/GhostInYou
Symphony of the Cursed trilogy
Rebecca Hall
Instrument of Peace
Raised in the world-leading Academy of magic rather than by his absentee parents, Mitch has come to see it as his home. He’s spent more time with his friends than his family and the opinion of his maths teacher matters far more than that of his parents. His peaceful life is shattered when a devastating earthquake strikes and almost claims his little brother’s life. But this earthquake is no natural phenomenon, it’s a result of the ongoing war between Heaven and Hell. To protect the Academy, one of the teachers makes an ill-advised contract with a fallen angel, unwittingly bringing down The Twisted Curse on staff and students.
Even as they struggle to rebuild the school, things begin to go wrong. The curse starts small, with truancy, incomplete assignments, and negligent teachers over-reacting to minor transgressions, but it isn’t long before the bad behaviour escalates to vandalism, rioting and attempted murder. As they succumb to the i
nfluence of the curse, Mitch’s friends drift away and his girlfriend cheats on him. When the first death comes, Mitch unites with the only other students who, like him, appear to be immune to the curse; together they are determined to find the cause of the problem and stop it.
ebook, paperback (368pp)
Instrument of War
The Angels are coming.
The Host wants to know what the Academy was trying to hide and why the Fallen agreed to it. They want the Instrument of War, the one thing that can tip the Eternity War in their favour and put an end to the stalemate. Any impact on the Academy staff, students or buildings is just collateral damage.
Mitch would like to forget that the last year ever happened, but that doesn’t seem likely with Little Red Riding Hood now teaching Teratology. The vampire isn’t quite as terrifying as he first thought, but she’s not the only monster at the Academy. The Fallen are spying on everyone, the new Principal is an angel and there’s an enchanting exchange student with Faerie blood.