Stories of the Raksura: Volume Two: The Dead City & The Dark Earth Below

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Nominated for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Series

Moon, Jade, and other favorites from the Indigo Cloud Court return with two new novellas from Martha Wells.
Martha Wells continues to enthusiastically ignore genre conventions in her exploration of the fascinating world of the Raksura. Her novellas and short stories contain all the elements fans have come to love from the Raksura books: courtly intrigue and politics, unfolding mysteries that reveal an increasingly strange wider world, and threats both mundane and magical.
The Dead City is a tale of Moon before he came to the Indigo Court. As Moon is fleeing the ruins of Saraseil, a groundling city destroyed by the Fell, he flies right into another potential disaster when a friendly caravanserai finds itself under attack by a strange force. In The Dark Earth Below, Moon and Jade face their biggest adventure yet; their first clutch. But even as Moon tries to prepare for impending fatherhood, members of the Kek village in the colony trees roots go missing, and searching for them only leads to more mysteries as the court is stalked by an unknown enemy.
Stories of Moon and the shape changers of Raksura have delighted readers for years. This world is a dangerous place full of strange mysteries, where the future can never be taken for granted and must always be fought for with wits and ingenuity, and often tooth and claw. With these two new novellas, Martha Wells shows that the world of the Raksura has many more stories to tell
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Reviews

Praise for Stories of the Raksura, Volume Two and The Books of the Raksura
"Breathtakingly surprising and fun. Wells is a master worldbuilder.The New York Times

Wildly original world-building, diverse and engaging characters, and a thrilling adventure plot. Its that rarest of fantasies: fresh and surprising, with a story that doesnt go where ten thousand others have gone before.N. K. Jemisin, author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Truly inventive and stunningly imaginative world building perfectly melded with vivid, engaging characters make the Books of the Raksura one of my all-time favorite science-fiction series.Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series

Martha Wells continues her Raksura series with another collection of novellas and shorter works. If you've never read the original trilogy (beginning with Cloud Roads), this is a fine introduction, but you really owe it to yourself to read them all. It's quite unlike anything else in the genre with a core cast of non-human characters, it creates an entirely fresh, matriarchal fantasy world with its own biology, ecology, technology, and magic.Barnes & Noble's New Book Round-up

"Immensely pleasing. . . the shorter stories still encompass everything that makes the novels so satisfying, from the daily interactions between Raksura to the incredible creatures, mysteries and landscapes of the Three Worlds, and if Martha Wells were to never write anything other than Raksura stories from now on, as much as I love her other work, I can't say I'd complain."A Dribble of Ink

"That raritya completely unique and stunning fantasy world.Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear

Martha Wells writes fantasy the way it was meant to bepoignant, evocative, and astonishing. Prepare to be captivated 'til the sun comes up.Kameron Hurley, author of The Mirror Empire and God's War

With these books Wells is writing at the top of her game, and given their breadth, originality, complexity, this series is showing indications it could become one of the landmark series of the genre.Adventures Fantastic

An imaginative world of engaging characters . . . the dramatic battles, tough decisions, and character dynamics shine through.Publishers Weekly

Martha Wells' Raksura books are dense, and complex, with truly amazing world building, and non-human characters who are quite genuinely alien, yet still comprehensible and sympathetic.Kelly McCullough, author of the WebMage series and the Fallen Blade novels
Praise for Stories of the Raksura, Volume Two and The Books of the Raksura
"Breathtakingly surprising and fun. Wells is a master worldbuilder.The New York Times

Wildly original world-building, diverse and engaging characters, and a thrilling adventure plot. Its that rarest of fantasies: fresh and surprising, with a story that doesnt go where ten thousand others have gone before.N. K. Jemisin, author of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Truly inventive and stunningly imaginative world building perfectly melded with vivid, engaging characters make the Books of the Raksura one of my all-time favorite science-fiction series.Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series

Martha Wells continues her Raksura series with another collection of novellas and shorter works. If you've never read the original trilogy (beginning with Cloud Roads), this is a fine introduction, but you really owe it to yourself to read them all. It's quite unlike anything else in the genre with a core cast of non-human characters, it creates an entirely fresh, matriarchal fantasy world with its own biology, ecology, technology, and magic.Barnes & Noble's New Book Round-up

"Immensely pleasing. . . the shorter stories still encompass everything that makes the novels so satisfying, from the daily interactions between Raksura to the incredible creatures, mysteries and landscapes of the Three Worlds, and if Martha Wells were to never write anything other than Raksura stories from now on, as much as I love her other work, I can't say I'd complain."A Dribble of Ink

"That raritya completely unique and stunning fantasy world.Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear

Martha Wells writes fantasy the way it was meant to bepoignant, evocative, and astonishing. Prepare to be captivated 'til the sun comes up.Kameron Hurley, author of The Mirror Empire and God's War

With these books Wells is writing at the top of her game, and given their breadth, originality, complexity, this series is showing indications it could become one of the landmark series of the genre.Adventures Fantastic

An imaginative world of engaging characters . . . the dramatic battles, tough decisions, and character dynamics shine through.Publishers Weekly

Martha Wells' Raksura books are dense, and complex, with truly amazing world building, and non-human characters who are quite genuinely alien, yet still comprehensible and sympathetic.Kelly McCullough, author of the WebMage series and the Fallen Blade novels

Author Bio

Martha Wells is the author of more than a dozen fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, The Gate of Gods, The Element of Fire, and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer. A full-length trilogy introducing the Raksura universe was released in 2011 and 2012, and is followed by a two-volume set of four novellas, all published by Night Shade Books.