Elaine is an orphan girl who has grown up in a world where magical ability brings power. Her limited talent was enough to ensure a magical training but she's very inexperienced and was lucky to get a position working in the Great Library. Now, the Grand Sorcerer - the most powerful magician of them all - is dying, although initially that makes little difference to Elaine; she certainly doesn't have the power to compete for higher status in the Golden City. But all that changes when she tri...

There is magic in the world, hiding in plain sight. If you search for it, you will find it, or it will find you. Welcome to the magical world.Having lived all her life in Edinburgh, the last thing 25-year old Dizzy expected was to see a man with a real (if tiny) dragon on his shoulder. Following him, she discovered that she had stumbled from her mundane world into a parallel magical world, an alternate reality where dragons flew through the sky and the Great Powers watched ...

It's 1831, and Lady Gwendolyn Crichton has been appointed Royal Sorceress following the tragic events known as the Swing. Although unleashed by the rebel master magician Jack in battle with Gwen's mentor Master Thomas, the popular press firmly laid the blame at the feet of the French. Now alone at the head of the Royal College of Sorcerers, Gwen must overcome prejudice against her gender and age if she is to exercise her authority and fulfil her responsibilities. Soon an unexpected respons...

Not every ugly duckling becomes a swan . . .In the wake of the disastrous attack on the Golden City, Lady Light Spinner has become Grand Sorceress and Elaine, the Bookworm, has been settling into her positions as Head Librarian and Privy Councillor. But any hope of vanishing into her books is negated when a new magician of staggering power appears in the city, one whose abilities seem to defy the known laws of magic.Johan is a Powerless, a person born to a magical family ye...

Elaine is an orphan girl who has grown up in a world where magical ability brings power. Her limited talent was enough to ensure a magical training, but she's very inexperienced and was lucky to get a position working in the Great Library. Now, the Grand Sorcerer—the most powerful magician of them all—is dying, although initially that makes little difference to Elaine; she certainly doesn't have the power to compete for higher status in the Golden City. But all that changes when she trigge...

For the post-singularity Confederation, manipulating the quantum foam the ability to alter the base code of the universe itself and achieve transcendence is the holy grail of science. But it seems an impossible dream until their scouts encounter Darius, a lost colony world whose inhabitants have apparently discarded the technology that brought them to the planet in order to adopt a virtually feudal culture. On Darius, the ruling elite exhibits abilities that defy the accepted laws of physi...

Elaine and Johan are preparing to leave Golden City, with Daria and the travelers, in order to search for the Witch-King. The Grand Sorceress instructs Inquisitor Cass to help them. But before Elaine can leave she is arrested by two Inquisitors on the orders of the Emperor. When she resists she is hit with a powerful spell that forces her to concentrate all her efforts on protecting her mind from its intrusion. Taken to the palace she finds that the Grand Sorceress has been removed and the...

It's 1830, in an alternate Britain where the 'scientific' principles of magic were discovered sixty years previously, allowing the British to win the American War of Independence. Although Britain is now supreme among the Great Powers, the gulf between rich and poor in the Empire has widened and unrest is growing every day. Master Thomas, the King's Royal Sorcerer, is ageing and must find a successor to lead the Royal Sorcerers Corps. Most magicians can possess only one of the panoply of k...

The long-dreaded war between Britain and France has finally begun. French soldiers have landed on English soil and the British Army—and the Royal Sorcerers Corps, led by Lady Gwen—is moving to meet them. But when an inexperienced major disobeys her orders and sends two hundred hussars to their deaths, Gwen accidentally uses her magic to permanently damage his mind and sparks a political crisis at the worst possible time.In the aftermath of the battle, Lord Mycroft suggests she leav...

A new Emperor has arisen . . . and the Empire is collapsing into chaos.Having escaped from the Golden City, Elaine, Johan, and their friends—including some strange allies with goals of their own—race desperately towards Ida, hiding place of the ancient Witch-King. Behind them, the armies of the new Emperor—a man permanently poised on the verge of madness—give chase, unleashing monsters and spells from the long-buried past on everyone who stands in their way. Ahead of them, the Witc...

Fourteen years ago, the gateway to Faerie opened and the denizens spilled forth into our world, fleeing a war that was destroying their world. The Faerie, Elves, Imps, Goblins, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons and thousands of other supernatural creatures infested our world, struggling to co-exist with humanity. And they brought back the magic. It's not a sane world any longer.When a child is kidnapped through magic, Guardian Glass is ordered to find her, by any means necessary. As he...

In The Unwritten Words, Christopher Nuttall's story-telling mastery weaves a new epic which follows on from his bestselling Bookworm series and is set in that same world. In The Promised Lie, the first book of the new series, five years have passed since the earth-shattering events of Bookworm IV.The Golden City has fallen. The Grand Sorcerer and Court Wizards are dead. The Empire they ruled is nothing more than a memory, a golden age lost in the civil wars as kin...