The Nine

by Tracy Townsend

Overview

In the dark streets of Corma exists a book that writes itself, a book that some would kill for...
 
Black market courier Rowena Downshire is just trying to pay her mother’s freedom from debtor's prison when an urgent and unexpected delivery leads her face to face with a creature out of nightmares.  Rowena escapes with her life, but the strange book she was ordered to deliver is stolen.
 
The Alchemist knows things few men have lived to tell about, and when Rowena shows up on his doorstep, frightened and empty-handed, he knows better than to turn her away. What he discovers leads him to ask for help from the last man he wants to see—the former mercenary, Anselm Meteron.
 
Across town, Reverend Phillip Chalmers awakes in a cell, bloodied and bruised, facing a creature twice his size. Translating the stolen book may be his only hope for survival; however, he soon realizes the book may be a fabled text written by the Creator Himself, tracking the nine human subjects of His Grand Experiment. In the wrong hands, it could mean the end of humanity.
 
Rowena and her companions become the target of conspirators who seek to use the book for their own ends.  But how can this unlikely team be sure who the enemy is when they can barely trust each other? And what will happen when the book reveals a secret no human was meant to know?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781633883413
Publisher:	Prometheus Books
Publication date:	11/14/2017
Series:	Thieves of Fate Series , #1
Pages:	367
Sales rank:	488,153
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Debut author Tracy Townsend holds a master's degree in writing and rhetoric from DePaul University and a bachelor's degree in creative writing from DePauw University, a source of regular consternation when proofreading her credentials. She is chair of the English Department at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, an elite public boarding school, where she teaches creative writing and science fiction and fantasy literature. She has been a martial arts instructor, a stage combat and accent coach, and a short-order cook for houses full of tired gamers. Now she lives in Bolingbrook, Illinois with two bumptious hounds, two remarkable children, and one very patient husband. Her short story "Late Arrivals" was published by Luna Station Quarterly in March 2016.

Editorial Reviews

09/18/2017
Townsend’s intriguing debut of nearly flawless writing follows an extremely flawed creation. In this alternate universe, science has become a religion that views God as a great experimenter. A magical book, which lists the nine people God is watching to decide whether to destroy the world, is desired by many factions with different goals. Anyone who learns about the book is likely to be targeted by the minions of the evil Nasrahiel, a nonhuman who wants humankind to fail God’s trial. Thirteen-year-old underworld courier Rowena Downshire is something of a passive protagonist who’s pushed around by the story. She doesn’t know the package she’s delivering is the book. When it’s stolen, she reports the theft to its intended recipient, the mysterious and dreaded Alchemist, who pulls her into a world of battles against Nasrahiel and other villains that’s far more dangerous than the poverty-stricken life she’d endured. The portrayal of God as the ultimate scientific experimenter and a civilization in which rationality does little to fend off brutality and corruption make for a gritty series opener. The most appealing characters are those who willingly travel to the scariest places, and all hopes are nerve-rackingly pinned on them. Agent: Bridget Smith, Dunham Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

[An] intriguing debut of nearly flawless writing. . . . A gritty series opener.”

—Publishers Weekly

"The Nine is a tense, fast-moving and twisty caper, with divided loyalties, creepy monsters, and grand mysteries. More please!"

—Max Gladstone, author of the Hugo Award-nominated Craft Sequence series

“An inventive alloy of low-fantasy grit and saucy gaslamp caper, by turns both uplifting and brutal—I dug the world, I loved the characters, and I definitely want to know what happens next.”

—Curtis C. Chen, author of the Locus Award finalist Waypoint Kangaroo

“George R. R. Martin and China Miéville have nothing on the audacious, intricate world-building, gritty politics, and compelling characters in this excellent debut.”

—Sam J. Miller, Nebula Award–nominated author of The Art of Starving

From the Publisher

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