Epic Magic

Destina Rosethorn—as her name implies—believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. She loses not only her beloved father but also the legacy he has left her: the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan—to go back in time and prevent his death.

When Lore was thirteen, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the ten years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city. Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter, and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she’s taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King.

Sviska is a man of the shadows, an assassin without any one place to call his own. But in the Far North, he discovers a secret. Magic, long thought lost to the world, is alive. The genocide to destroy every elf, wizard, and sacred being of old is not yet complete. Sviska's masters work the strings of the world and he has been sent for a task he does not even fully understand yet. When at last he feels he has what he has always wanted, darkness falls upon the world.

A month has passed since Martin helped to defeat the evil programmer Jimmy, and things couldn't be going better. Except for his love life, that is. Feeling distant and lost, Gwen has journeyed to Atlantis, a tolerant and benevolent kingdom governed by the Sorceresses, and a place known to be a safe haven to all female time-travelers.

Hot on the heels of Gardner Dozois's acclaimed anthology The Book of Swords comes this companion volume devoted to magic. How could it be otherwise? For every Frodo, there is a Gandalf... and a Saruman. For every Dorothy, a Glinda... and a Wicked Witch of the West. What would Harry Potter be without Albus Dumbledore... and Severus Snape? Figures of wisdom and power, possessing arcane, often forbidden knowledge, wizards and sorcerers are shaped - or misshaped - by the potent magic they seek to wield.

William de Worde is the accidental editor of the Discworld's first newspaper. Now he must cope with the traditional perils of a journalist's life - people who want him dead, a recovering vampire with a suicidal fascination for flash photography, some more people who want him dead in a different way and, worst of all, the man who keeps begging him to publish pictures of his humorously shaped potatoes.

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork. And now the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match without using magic...so they're in the mood for trying everything else. To do so, they recruit an unlikely group of players: Trev, a street urchin with a talent for kicking a tin can; Glenda, the night chef who makes a mean pie; Juliet, the kitchen hand turned world's greatest fashion model; and the mysterious Mr Nutt, who has something powerful, and dark, locked away inside him.

Now together in one place, these stories of Daevabad enrich a world already teeming with magic and wonder. Explore this magical kingdom, hidden from human eyes. A place where djinn live and thrive, fight and love. A world where princes question their power, and powerful demons can help you…or destroy you.

In the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, the ice dragon was a creature of legend and fear, for no man had ever tamed one. When it flew overhead, it left in its wake desolate cold and frozen land. But Adara was not afraid. For Adara was a winter child, born during the worst freeze that anyone, even the Old Ones, could remember. Adara could not remember the first time she had seen the ice dragon. It seemed that it had always been in her life, glimpsed from afar as she played in the frigid snow long after the other children had fled the cold.

Rico hungered for something more, eager for excitement. Fate led him to a goddess of opportunity. The divine teleports him to a planet filled with war, magic, and denizens of the deep. Life... it has a way of smacking you in the face, eliciting that fight of flight emotion buried deep within. For Rico, he embraces the challenge, being blessed as a mage of the nine magics; a protector of the nine species. By crushing his enemies to gain riches and levels, he'll protect the downtrodden as a destined champion.

Danny Youngblood thought he knew the dangers of monster summoning. But when a mysterious desert civilization, the Sapiens, launches a devastating attack on the Empire, he discovers a threat far greater than anything he's ever faced. As the Sapiens close in on the Imperial City, Danny and his friends must race against time to uncover the secrets behind their advanced weapons and powerful monsters. With the help of the brilliant inventor Isa, they develop new strategies and powerful summons to combat the invading force.

The Ravani kingdom was born of a prophecy, carved from unforgiving desert sands and ruled by the Ravence bloodline: those with the power to command the Eternal Fire. Elena Aadya is the heir to the throne—and the only Ravence who cannot wield her family’s legendary magic. As her coronation approaches, she will do whatever it takes to prove herself a worthy successor to her revered father. But she doesn’t anticipate the arrival of Yassen Knight, the notorious assassin who now claims fealty to the throne.

The Four Kingdoms and the fatemarked face the most powerful army the world has ever seen. In Phanes, Roan Loren, the Peacemaker, has high hopes for a united response to the threat from the Horde, but swiftly realizes the only true ally he has is his arch nemesis, Bane. Meanwhile, Rhea Loren, a new mother with a secret, must decide whether to protect her child or share what she knows with the fatemarked. The fate of the Four Kingdoms hangs in the balance in the epic finale to the Amazon number-one best-selling series!

To the north, Annise Gäric ventures into the Hinterlands to discover the truth of the Sleeping Knights, who may be the only hope for her kingdom. Meanwhile, Tarin Sheary travels to Darrin in a desperate bid to repel the eastern forces amassing at Crow's Nest. Unbeknownst to either of them, a new threat rises in Blackstone.

It’s been two years since Auris escaped from the sinister Goblin prison and learned of her heritage as one of the Fae. She is now happily partnered with her Fae lover, Harrow, and deeply bonded with her new family. All seems to be going perfectly—until, surprisingly, the Goblin attacks begin again. Someone, it seems, has not forgotten that Auris exists and seems determined to retrieve her . . . but who? And why?

Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against long odds in the past. But the war they’re fighting now is one even they can’t win. This time, they’re not facing robber-baron elites or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—one that uses the magic of scriving to control not just objects but human minds. To fight it, they’ve used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—unlike anything humanity has seen before.

Dara Ruminor takes her new position as a castle guard for the King of Vertigon very seriously. She refuses to allow her feelings for Siv to get in the way of atoning for her parents' actions, no matter how hard it is to keep her distance. But she's keeping secrets from her king - and the one involving a fiery newfound ability is getting harder to hide.

At 19, Auris Afton Grieg has led an...unusual life. Since the age of 14, she has been trapped in a Goblin prison. Why? She does not know. She has no memories of her past beyond the vaguest of impressions. All she knows is that she is about to age out of the children’s prison, and rumors say that the adult version is far, far worse. So she and some friends stage a desperate escape into the surrounding wastelands. And it is here that Auris’ journey of discovery begins, for she is rescued by a handsome yet alien stranger.

For the first time as an Orbit special edition, Brent Weeks's blockbuster novella Perfect Shadow tells the origin story of the Night Angel trilogy's most enigmatic character: Durzo Blint. Gaelan Starfire is a farmer, happy to be a husband and a father; a careful, quiet, simple man. He's also an immortal, peerless in the arts of war. Over the centuries, he's worn many faces to hide his gift, but he is a man ill-fit for obscurity, and all too often he's become a hero, his very names passing into legend.

Amidst the decaying splendor and poisonous intrigue of Chalion's ancient capital, Cazaril is forced to confront not only powerful enemies but also the malignant curse that clings to the royal household, trapping him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death for as long as he dares walk the five-fold pathway of the gods.