Of sand and malice made

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D.D. Everest

Archie's cousin, Thistle, is about to start his apprenticeship at the Museum of Magical Miscellany. But when it comes to his initiation, the firemark that burns into Thistle's hand is a strange one, and Archie and Bramble are given it too. The Golden Circle is the mark of an ancient alchemist's club and when Archie and his cousins learn about a curse that threatens their beloved museum, they have no choice but to start their own alchemist's club, and face the darkest kind of magic. Welcome to a wonderful, magical world where bookshelves are enchanted, librarians are sorcerers and spells come to life.

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R. S. Belcher

"R. S. Belcher's debut novel, The Six-Gun Tarot, was enthusiastically greeted by critics and readers, who praised its wildly inventive mixture of dark fantasy, steampunk, and the Wild West. Now Belcher returns to Golgotha, Nevada, a bustling frontier town that hides more than its fair share of unnatural secrets. 1870. A haven for the blessed and the damned, including a fallen angel, a mad scientist, a pirate queen, and a deputy who is kin to coyotes, Golgotha has come through many nightmarish trials, but now an army of thirty-two outlaws, lunatics, serial killers, and cannibals are converging on the town, drawn by a grisly relic that dates back to the Donner Party...and the dawn of humanity. Sheriff Jon Highfather and his deputies already have their hands full dealing with train robbers, a mysterious series of brutal murders, and the usual outbreaks of weirdness. But with thirty-two of the most vicious killers on Earth riding into Golgotha in just a few day's time, the town and its people will be tested as never before--and some of them will never be the same. The Shotgun Arcana is even more spectacularly ambitious and imaginative than The Six-Gun Tarot, and confirms R. S. Belcher's status as a rising star"--

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Robin Hobb

Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom.From the Paperback edition.

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Barbara Hambly

The City of Mandrigyn was conquered and its men enslaved in the foul mines of the evil Wizard King, Altiokis. Now the women of the city, led by Sheera Galernas, had come to hire the mercenary army of Captain Sun Wolf. But Sun Wolf was too wise to become involved in fighting against wizardry... --- until he woke to find himslef kidnapped and offered a grim choice by Sheera. He could train and lead the ladies of Mandrigyn against Altiokis--or he could die from the anzid they had given him and for which only they had the antidote.