Our next Steampunk Month giveaway is a twofer! Tor Books has donated twenty copies each of Stephen Hunt’s The Court of the Air, now in mass market, and its sequel, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. The Court of the Air is a steampunk thriller, complete with suspense, conspiracies, and adventure:
When streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the attack. For Molly is a special little girl, and she carries a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state.
Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered existence in the backwater home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative’s murder he is forced to flee for his life, accompanied by an agent of the mysterious Court of the Air. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life.
Soon Molly and Oliver will find themselves battling a grave threat to civilization, an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but the two orphans are also aided by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue, and adventure.
The Court of the Air is a rollicking adventure set in a fantastical Dickensian clockwork universe that will appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke and Philip Pullman.
I leave it to you to decide if you want to read the summary of the book’s sequel, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, here (it inevitably contains some spoilers for the first book). And if you don’t win this one: Court of the Air is discounted 30% in the Tor.com Store until the end of the week!
The Rules: To get this giveaway, all you need to do is comment (once—duplicates won’t count) on this post. The winners will be selected at random. You have until noon EST on Friday, October 30th, to comment here. Please check your e-mail on this day—you have 24 hours to respond before I select a new winner.
Torie Atkinson’s favorite part of this book is that on the spine the Tor Books logo is zeppelinified with a basket hanging from it.
