Tomorrow, W. F. Howes publish new audiobook editions of Tracy Townsend‘s Thieves of Fate duology: THE NINE and THE FALL. Both audiobooks are read by Alyssa Bresnaham.
Here’s the synopsis for THE NINE…
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?
And here’s the synopsis for THE FALL…
An apothecary clerk and her ex-mercenary allies travel across the world to discover a computing engine that leads to secrets she wasn’t meant to know — secrets that could destroy humanity.
Eight months ago, Rowena Downshire was a half-starved black market courier darting through the shadows of Corma’s underside. Today, she’s a (mostly) respectable clerk in the Alchemist’s infamous apothecary shop, the Stone Scales, and certainly the last girl one would think qualified to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders a second time. Looks can be deceiving.
When Anselm Meteron and the Alchemist receive an invitation to an old acquaintance’s ball — the Greatduke who financed their final, disastrous mercenary mission fourteen years earlier — they’re expecting blackmail, graft, or veiled threats related to the plot to steal the secrets of the Creator’s Grand Experiment. They aren’t expecting a job offer they can’t refuse or a trip halfway across the world to rendezvous with the scholar whose research threw their lives into tumult: the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers. Escorting Chalmers to the Grand Library of Nippon with her mismatched mercenary family is just a grand adventure to Rowena until she discovers a powerful algebraic engine called the Aggregator. The Aggregator leads Rowena to questions about the Grand Experiment she was never meant to ask and answers she cannot be allowed to possess. With her reunited friends, Rowena must find a way to use the truths hidden in the Grand Library to disarm those who would hunt down the nine subjects of the Creator’s Grand Experiment, threatening to close the book on this world.
Here are a few of the reviews the series has received…
‘Townsend’s intriguing debut of nearly flawless writing follows an extremely flawed creation […] The most appealing characters are those who willingly travel to the scariest places, and all hopes are nerve-rackingly pinned on them.’ — Publishers Weekly on THE NINE
‘Tracy Townsend has written a dazzling debut which positively crackles with imagination and enigmatic charm.’ — Bibliosanctum on THE NINE
‘This story leaves all the normal story elements behind to give the reader a fresh look at a new world and story.’ — Crossroad Reviews on THE NINE
‘I could write for days about how much THE NINE drew me in and twisted me up with not just its richness and complexity, but its intensity and heart, too. I honestly can’t remember a debut novel as brilliant as this one, and the fact that it’s the start of a new series has me energized with not just its richness and complexity, but its intensity and heart, too.’ — Blackgate Magazine
‘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, on THE NINE
‘George R.R. Martin and China Miéville have nothing on this 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, on THE NINE
‘Fans of genre-bending science fiction will want to take another journey to Townsend’s clockwork realms.’ — Publishers Weekly on THE FALL
‘[THE FALL] has a great blend of topics and characters and one killer story.’ — Crossroad Reviews
‘[THE FALL is] gorgeously written, unique and clever.’ — Fantasy Book Critic
‘Townsend weaves an intricate tapestry of human motivations, nonhuman races, world-shattering conspiracies and simple awe. The scope of her worldbuilding leaves me breathless.’ — Lawrence M. Schoen, author of The Moons of Barsk, on THE FALL
‘A richly imagined and complex world, full of political machination and philosophical magic, as intricate and beautifully wrought as a pocket watch. A remarkable book.’ — Cat Rambo, author of The Tabat Quartet, on THE FALL
Zeno represents Tracy Townsend in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.