A young woman rises from the streets to battle a sinister evil in this magical fantasy adventure by the bestselling author of the Darwath series. Something is amiss with the world's magic. Spells don't work the way they used to—when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands. They need a hero. At the same time, ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these insanely destructive monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power. Clea's only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her, either to the great merchant houses or to...

Three thousand years before, the monstrous Dark had sprung from loathsome underground lairs to destroy most of humanity. Now they were again ravening and ruining in their blood-hunger. Only a few thousand people had managed to find refuge in the ancient fortress Keep of Renweth.There, even the magic of the wizard Ingold Inglorion could offer them little hope against the Dark.To defeat the savage horror, they must gain help from the Hidden City of Quo, to which all other wizards had been summoned. But Ingold could not pierce the walls of illusion that separated Quo from the world.With his student, Rudy Solis, the old wizard set out to cross two thousand miles of dangerous desert to the City of Wizards.What he might find there he could not know -- and dared not guess!

A novelette of 12,000 words in the Benjamin January Free Man of Color historical mystery series. All of New Orleans is agog over Professor Tixall's telescope, which can reportedly see life on the Moon. Rose Janvier is convinced that it's a hoax, and a harmless one (though profitable for Professor Tixall), until one of her servants, looking through the telescope after hours, sees one of the "bat-people" of the Moon murder another one. Rose knows that murder has been done, but how do you prove it when the events supposedly took place on another planet?

A novelette of 15,000 words, sequel to Hambly's Dragonsbane (Winterlands) series. When a gnome wizard is murdered by what is thought to be a demon, the other gnome mages call on the human witch Jenny Waynest for aid. Unfortunately, Jenny is away. Her non-wizard partner, the scholarly Dragonsbane John Aversin, steps in to help solve the crime.

A novelette of 15,000 words. It is April of 1924. Colossus Films (of the novel Bride of the Rat-God) is shooting in Reno, because their male star, Tor Westlake, is getting his fifth divorce in order to marry Chrysanda (Christine) Flamande, the studio's #1 starlet. They are filming at the supposedly-haunted castle on the outskirts of town, built by a Gold Rush millionaire, and sharing the sets with a black film company from Chicago, whose female star is also getting a divorce from her abusive husband. Tor wants to hold a séance in the haunted castle, but Norah – Christine's sister-in-law and dog-minder – is uneasy. Christine's dogs are conscious of supernatural activity, and there's something about their reactions to the castle that doesn't seem right to her.

After a year of magical combat, the world is in ruins, and the few surviving wizards, including two stranded Californians, must take to the offensive Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The land\'s wizards have been slaughtered, its cities destroyed, and its people scattered in terror, and few have witnessed more of the destruction than Rudy and Gil-two ordinary Californians who found their way across the Void, and took up arms in defense of a strange and magical world. She learned the ways of war, while he found within himself the powers of a great wizard. Both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Rudy, Gil, and the rest of mankind\'s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse.

A cursed statue . . . A haunted house . . . A seemingly supernatural death . . . The unexpected arrival of a friend from his past plunges musician, sleuth and free man of color Benjamin January into an old, unsolved case in this historical mystery set in New Orleans"Outstanding . . . fastidious period detail, and a consistently surprising investigation" Publishers Weekly Starred ReviewDecember 1840. Surgeon turned piano-player Benjamin January is looking forward to a peaceful holiday with his family. But the arrival of an old friend brings unexpected news - and unexpected danger.Persephone Jondrette has found Arithmus: a Sudanese man with extraordinary mental abilities who January last saw in France, nearly fifteen years ago, during a ghost-hunting expedition to a haunted chateau. January and his friends survived the experience . . . but Arithmus' benefactor, the British explorer Deverel Wishart,...

Vampire Don Simon Ysido has been captured and held aboard a ship heading to the US to act as a slave, and Dr Lydia Asher must stop it . . . at any cost. March, 1917. The goal of every government involved in the Great War has been achieved: industrialist Spenser Cochran has drugged and enslaved a vampire, Don Simon Ysidro, to do his bidding, and is now on the way to the US aboard a luxury ship. Horrified, Dr Lydia Asher secures her passage on the vessel to rescue her friend from Cochran's chemical thrall. Meanwhile, her husband makes a dangerous alliance with the vampires of Paris to send Lydia the information she needs about the drug. As they cross the Atlantic evidence mounts that another vampire is hiding aboard the ship, indiscriminately murdering passengers. Lydia knows she must solve both cases before the ship docks, and that breaking Cochran's hold on Don Simon will not be enough . . . She must kill him.

A novelette of 14,000 words, a sequel to the Windrose Chronicles, which began with The Silent Tower and The Silicon Mage. Antryg Windrose, exiled Archmage from another universe, is called upon by a Los Angeles biker who claims that his girlfriend has been abducted by shadowy beings from across the Void. Antryg and his companion, computer programmer Joanna Sheraton, go in quest of the missing woman, and find that other people, in other universes, are being inexplicably kidnapped, too. The quest leads to a ghastly secret, and a battle with dark magic and death.

The new 'Benjamin January' novel from the best-selling author - New Orleans, 1836. When free black musician and surgeon Benjamin January attends the funeral of a friend, an accident tips the dead man out of his coffin - only to reveal an unexpected inhabitant. Just one person recognises the corpse of the white man: Hannibal Sefton, fiddle-player and one of January's closest friends. But he seems unwilling to talk about his connection to the dead man . . .From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. Sorrow, grief, and pain pervade Hambly's outstanding ninth Benjamin January mystery (after 2004's Dead Water), set in New Orleans during the summer of 1836. Trapped by poverty and the color of his skin, January, a free black who trained in France as a physician, goes undercover as a piano player in a high-class bordello to investigate possible embezzlement from the Faubourg Tremé Free Colored Militia and Burial Society. The discovery of a white man's body in a coffin meant for one of the FTFCMBS's members propels the justice-seeking January on a harrowing journey full of disturbing revelations to save a young English aristocrat from the gallows. Hambly's sure hand with historical detail, her convincing characterizations, and her view of the slave trade that debased both blacks and their white masters raise this tale of violence, deceit, and humiliation to a must-read commentary on human frailty and redeeming human friendship. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistWith his first appearance in A Free Man of Color (1997), Benjamin January emerged as one of the most unusual characters in the realm of historical mysteries, with his creator earning kudos for both her originality and her extraordinary attention to historical detail. If living as a free black in nineteenth-century New Orleans wasn’t enough to set January apart, his classical education, years of living in Paris, and knowledge of medicine made him truly unusual. Although January’s past investigations have earned him respect from many in his native city, his endeavors to save the life of an uncooperative young lord accused of murder are still hampered by long-held secrets and by vicious racism that puts January’s life at risk, time and again. Relayed through January’s perspective, the story gives an intimate picture of the intolerance and struggles of the time, but as carefully crafted as these matters are, Hambly is also talented enough to entertain. That’s two successes for the price of one. --Stephanie Zvirin

Benjamin January heads to the "Slaveholders' Republic" of Texas to locate a kidnapped girl and help a woman who saved him from the noose. April, 1840. Benjamin January knows no black person in their right mind would willingly go to the Republic of Texas but when his former pupil Selina Bellinger is kidnapped and enslaved, he has no choice. Once there he is saved from being hanged by Valentina Taggart, wife of the wealthy landowner of Rancho Perdition. After Valentina is accused of the murder of her husband, she in turn calls on Benjamin for help. To do so, he must abandon the safe haven of New Orleans, where people know he's a free man, to return to the self-proclaimed "Slaveholders' Republic". In a land still disputed between vengeful Comanche, disgruntled Mexican Tejanos, Americans who want to join the United States and those who want to keep Texas free, January must uncover what happened to Valentina's husband. Behind lies, betrayals and rising...

Welcome to Hollywood of the 1920s: a world filled with glamour, fake names . . . and the occasional felony!July, 1924. After nine months of living in Hollywood and working as a companion to her beautiful silent-movie star sister-in-law, young British widow Emma Blackstone is settling into her new role: doctoring film scenarios whenever the regular scenarist is overwhelmed with work, which seems to be most of the time.Shoots for the Western movie Our Tiny Miracle are in full swing, with little seven-year-old Susy Sweetchild playing the lead and acting most professionally. Maybe too professionally, Emma thinks, shocked to the core when the child star is nearly killed in a stunt scene and her mother - former screen siren Selina Sutton - seems only to care that Susy gets the job done. But Emma's concerns only worsen when news reaches her that Susy and her mother have been kidnapped. The ransom note says to keep the cops out of it, so...

The new Benjamin January novel from the best-selling author - RAN AWAY. So began a score of advertisements every week in the New Orleans newspapers, advertising for slaves who'd fled their masters. But the Turk, Huseyin Pasha, posted no such advertisement when his two lovely concubines disappeared. And when a witness proclaimed he'd seen the "devilish infidel" hurl their dead bodies out of a window, everyone was willing to believe him the murderer. Only Benjamin January, who knows the Turk of old, is willing to seek for the true culprit, endangering his own life in the process . . .

A novelette of 14,000 words, sequel to Hambly's Darwath series. The teleporter is due to open between the Keep of Dare and an unknown Keep, lost for three thousand years - and Archmage Ingold Inglorion is snowed in fifty miles away and unable to be there to deal with whatever might be on the other side of that teleporter. California warrior-woman Gil Patterson, and California mage-in-training Rudy Solis, have to explore the unknown Keep on their own: to interpret its secrets, to prevent whatever might lurk there from following them back to the last Keep of humankind... and to destroy it when, in spite of their efforts, it does.