The thousand eyes

The price for saving the one you love could be losing yourself. Book two of The Serpent Gates series begins two years after events in The Unspoken Name (2020). Csorwe and her lover, the priestess mage Shuthmili, have become business partners with Tal Charossa, Csorwe's former rival. Tal is still a scoundrel with only one real talent--swordsmanship--but that comes in quite handy in their line of work. They have been hired to find the lost hatchery of the Echentyr, an ancient snake civilization that was destroyed by the Thousand Eyes goddess. When their client is killed after awakening a 3000-year-old snake warrior fiercely loyal to her deity, the trio is drawn into a quest and a winner-takes-all confrontation among multiple immortals and their followers. It will be left to Tal, never the best planner, to devise a rescue. Ancient relics, old foes, and new allies abound as Larkwood delves further into her vibrant fantasy world of fickle gods, blood sacrifices, treachery, unswerving fidelity, and boundless love that will intrigue fans and attract new series readers.

First in the "Kithamar" trilogy, set in an ancient city with a blood-bathed history, Nebula-nominated, Hugo-winning Abraham's Age of Ash tells the story of a thief named Alys whose hunt for her brother's murderer reveals secrets that could bring down rulers (40,000-copy first printing). With Clean Air, award-winning author Blake introduces a postapocalyptic world where trees are so overgrown that pollen chokes the world and people must live in domes that someone is viciously slashing. From Hugo nominee and internationally best-selling Dutch author Heuvelt, sends Nick Grevers and climbing partner Augustin up a remote mountain in the Swiss Alps called the Maudit ("cursed" in French), whose eerie stillness presages the horror to come (150,000-copy first printing). In The Thousand Eyes, a follow-up to Larkwood's LJ-starred debut, The Unspoken Name, Csorwe has defied the wizard she served and disappeared into the unknown to lead a quiet life with her mage-girlfriend--but not for long; bits and pieces of an ancient goddess are arising in the worlds of the Echo Maze, and Csorwe must join with old companions to resist (150,000-copy first printing). Owen, The Boy with the Bird in His Chest in Lund's debut, is hidden away by his mother for years to protect him but decides to risk an outing in the woods that turns catastrophic (60,000-copy first printing). Successful YA author Ross's first adult fantasy, A River Enchanted takes place on an island as magical as Prospero's, where spirits responding only to a bard's music thrive--and the trouble they are stirring up forces just-returned musician Jack and his nemesis, heiress Adaira, to cooperate (50,000-copy first printing).