An amazing epic fantasy from start to finish! Stewart and Riddell have created a wonderfully imaginative fantasy world that will certainly capture the interest of young readers with a passion for adventure and dragons! Due to the gory and graphic nature of the novel, I would recommend this for ...
‘Careful, brave masters!’ he called out breathlessly. ‘Not so fast, brave mistress!’ They emerged from the trees onto a track – flattened and hardened by the passing of countless booted feet and wooden wheels – and there in front of them, like some magnificent jewel-encrusted tapestry, were the g...
Then, without pausing, he jumped to his feet and peered back down, over the side. ‘Cowlquape!’ he bellowed. Certainly he had heard no splash and, though he peered closely at the muddy riverbed below, he could see no sign of his young apprentice. ‘Cowlquape!’ he cried out a...
F … O … The tip of his index finger circled it once, twice, before moving on. X. He sighed.‘Rain Fox,’ he murmured, and wondered who he could have been, this long forgotten sky pirate captain who had carved his name on the tavern table. Had he been rich and successful, with a magnificent sky ship...
‘Now it is your turn, Barnaby Grimes.’ The pungent stench of sea-coal smoke and scorched chemicals made my eyes water and caught in my throat. There were splashes of a thick, viscous liquid on the floor at my feet, and the ornate brass gas lamp which jutted from the wall was ablaze. A length of c...
The sun beat down, hot and bright. All the vomiting in the sealed pod had left Twig's throat feeling as if it had been sandpapered. He needed a drink. He picked himself up and looked back at his shadow which stretched far out across the treacherous swamp. At the end of it ...
I was in a cheerful mood, and with good reason. My protégé, Will Farmer, had just landed his first highstacking job. An apothecary by the name of Arnold Tilling had taken Will on as his regular tick-tock lad, to deliver potions and pills to his many customers all over town. Now Will was practisin...
Had he noticed something moving, something flying overhead? Or was it just another illusion, another cruel trick of the watery light? ‘Father,’ he cried out. ‘Is that you?’ ‘You … you … you…’ the woods cried back. Twig shuddered miserably. There was...
Turning out the contents of my bureau, I went to work in a fresh shirt and waistcoat each day. As I highstacked all over town, delivering parcels and documents, I brushed past sooty chimneys at every opportunity, rolled across countless dusty rooftops and dined carelessly on wharfman's stew. Soon...
A dull pain grumbled at the base of his spine. He groaned softly and the sound echoed round the still, dark air. His head felt light, fuzzy, and curiously empty – as if his thoughts had all been stripped away. Where am I? he wondered. Who am I? For a moment, it was a strug...
‘Maris! Maris, I …’He stopped, scarcely able to believe his eyes. He was standing in what had been Linius Pallitax's magnificent personal apartment in the School of Mist. But now the place was an empty, echoing hall, with open doors leading to other deserted rooms. In the middle of it all sat a g...
No matter how hard he pressed his hands to his ears, how loudly he hummed, how vigorously he tried to engage in conversation with himself, they would not be silenced. They would not be still.‘Xanth!’ he cried out, his own voice carried off on the warm wind sweeping in from the Twilight Woods. ‘Xa...