Blackthorn Winter

Blackthorn Winter

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

Rediscover your sense of wonder. The sequel to Comet Weather. The Fallow Sisters: Bee, Stella, Serena, Luna; four fey sisters drawn ever further from the familiar world of contemporary London and their Somerset home, from motorways, fashion design and music, into darker realms where no one is who they seem and nothing is to be trusted.   When Serena's latest collection is mysteriously shredded on the eve of fashion week, the arrival of a wealthy benefactor seems a Godsend, but is he all he seems, and what of the green-skinned girl Bee takes in after finding her cowering in a churchyard? How are these connected to the magpie changeling (who claims to be an angel) sent to watch over Stella or the timeslips Luna is experiencing with ever greater frequency now that she's pregnant...?  Something is coming for the Fallow sisters, their lovers and their friends, but they have no idea what, and their mother Alys is no help as she's gone wandering again, though she did promise to return by Christmas, and December is already here... **
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Comet Weather

Comet Weather

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

A contemporary tale of four fey sisters. Bee: the practical one, the lynchpin; still living in the family home of Mooncote in Somerset, where she has met an unconventional boyfriend that not even her sisters are aware of. Stella: a DJ among other things. Currently hanging around the Med after completing a series of gigs in Ibiza, she has vowed never to return to Mooncote following a row with Bee, but that was then... Serena: a single mother and fashion designer living in Notting Hill, increasingly uncertain of her relationship with long-term boyfriend Ben, a Camden-based rock singer and the son of a family friend. Luna: the youngest, head-strong and free-spirited, a wanderer living out of a horse-drawn van while she follows the Gypsy Switch: the route of horse fairs that spans the length of the country. The Fallow sisters, scattered like the four winds but now drawn back together, with the comet due, united in their desire to find their mother, Alys – a former Vogue cover model who disappeared a year ago without warning or explanation. They have help, of course, from the star spirits and the no-longer-living, but such advice tends to be cryptic and is hardly the most dependable of guides. How is the comet connected to all this, and what of the huge cloaked intruder, stinking of blood and earth, who surprises Stella one night while she’s home alone? The sisters soon come to realise that their mother’s disappearance may be part of something far bigger and much darker than they had ever suspected…  **
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Worldsoul

Worldsoul

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world? Worldsoul, a great city that forms a nexus point between Earth and the many dimensions known as the Liminality, is a place where old stories gather, where forgotten legends come to fade and die-or to flourish and rise again. Until recently, Worldsoul has been governed by the Skein, but they have gone missing and no one knows why. The city is also being attacked with lethal flower-bombs from unknown enemy. Mercy Fane and her fellow Librarians are doing their best to maintain the Library, but… things… keep breaking out of ancient texts and legends and escaping into the city. Mercy must pursue one such dangerous creature. She turns to Shadow, an alchemist, for aid, but Shadow-inadvertently possessed by an ifrit-has a perilous quest of her own to undertake.
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Shadow Pavilion

Shadow Pavilion

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

When his partner goes missing, Chen discovers a transcendental assassination plotDetective Inspector Chen is getting used to visiting Heaven. It is a peaceful place, but the eerie calm and ever-present scent of peaches make him yearn for the chaos of Singapore Three. He has come to visit Mhara, the Emperor of Heaven, who ascended to the celestial throne after his father went mad and launched an ill-advised invasion of Hell. Order has been restored to the cosmos, and Mhara is characteristically serene, but trouble is lurking for this handsome young god.Someone is trying to kill the Emperor of Heaven, and Chen does not have his demonic partner, Zhu Irzh, to fall back on. Zhu Irzh has vanished, Chen's wife is in danger, and a psychotic Bollywood star is on the warpath. It's another day in the office for the occult detective—a day that, if he doesn't restore order quickly, could be the universe's last.The Shadow Pavilion is the fourth of the five Detective Inspector...
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Iron Khan

Iron Khan

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

Chen searches for a missing book that holds the fate of creation in its pagesNo mortal has ever heard of the Book, and few in Heaven even believe it is real. Instead, they regard the stories of a bound volume older than time itself as something of a creation myth. But Mhara, the Emperor of Heaven, knows the Book is very real, very powerful, and very much missing. It has a mind of its own, and it appears to have wandered off—taking the secrets of the universe with it.To find it, Mhara calls Detective Inspector Chen, a supernatural sleuth with previous experience in saving the universe. Chen has a lot on his plate at the moment: His wife is pregnant, his demonic partner is tracking the movement of an immortal horde, and he hasn't had a vacation in years. But for the sake of the Emperor, he'll do his best to return order to the cosmos. If he doesn't, who will?The Iron Khan is the final volume of the Detective Inspector Chen Novels, which begin with Snake Agent and...
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Necrochip

Necrochip

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

A short story that takes place in Singapore Three, setting of the Inspector Chen novels.Is it really possible to secure a rendezvous for sex with a beautiful woman... after she's dead? Apparently, yes... But is it wise to?
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Snake Agent

Snake Agent

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

When a soul goes missing, an occult detective ventures into Hell to retrieve itWhen the fourteen-year-old daughter of Singapore Three's most prominent industrialist dies of anorexia, her parents assume that Pearl's suffering has come to an end. But somewhere along the way to the Celestial Shores, Pearl's soul is waylaid, lured by an unknown force to the gates of Hell. To save their daughter from eternal banishment, they come to Detective Inspector Wei Chen, whose jurisdiction lies between this world and the next.A round-faced cop who is as serious as his beat is strange, Chen has a demon for a wife and a comfort with the supernatural that most mortals cannot match. But finding Pearl Tang will take him further into the abyss than ever before—to a mystifying place where he will have to cooperate with a demonic detective if he wants to survive. It's easy, Chen will find, to get into Hell. The hard part is getting out.Snake Agent is the first of the five Detective...
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Winterstrike

Winterstrike

Liz Williams

Liz Williams

First novel in a captivating Gothic SF trilogy, which is set in the same world as BANNER OF SOULS - shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke AwardWinterstrike spy Hestia Mar has been sent to Caud to recover details of an ancient weapon. During her stay in the Martian city, she encounters the ghost of a warrior, who turns out to be the encoded representation of the city's bombed library. Hestia Mar manages to access the library's data, but realizes too late what she has done: by downloading the information, she has virtually guaranteed the use of the weapon against Caud by her own government. Desperate to rescue the situation she makes her way back home across the dangers of the Crater Plain.Meanwhile, in Winterstrike itself, the festival of Ombre has been taking place upon the eve of war. Hestia's cousin Shorn -imprisoned by her family for accidentally consorting with a male - manages to escape. Her sister Essegui, pursuing her to the dangerous mountains of...
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