WINGS OF SORROW AND BONE

(Harper Voyager Impulse | on-sale 11/10/2015 | eISBN: 9780062411266 | $.99)

The rich world building and complex, diverse cast of characters in award-nominated author Beth Cato’s Clockwork Dagger series has captured the hearts and minds of the SFF community. Cato’s stories—which blend the experimental, Victorian-inspired science of the steampunk genre with the whimsical magic of classic high fantasy—are much beloved additions to the steampunk oeuvre. And now, with her latest offering, Wings of Sorrow and Bone, Cato is adding one more element: high-stakes gamesmanship.

Few things can enthrall the way a high-stakes chess game can; the forethought, the outmaneuvering, the tactical skill it takes—but what if instead of inanimate chess pieces, the game were more of a battle, and the board was an obstacle course…and the pieces were chimera gremlins, cobbled together by magic and science, and piloted by risk-taking jockeys? Beth Cato’s Wings of Sorrow and Bone hones in on this, focusing on the Arena Games mentioned in her Clockwork Dagger duology.

If you haven’t had a chance to enjoy the works of this newcomer to the scene yet, now is the perfect time! Wings of Sorrow and Bone is a delightful novella, set in the same world as The Clockwork Dagger, but featuring secondary characters and the fan-favorite gremlins! The gremlins are charming, cheese-loving chimeras, fused together with science and magic, and cruelly used for war games purely for the entertainment of others. Despite the fact that they are constructs, the endearingly ugly gremlins have hearts of gold, and are everything that readers love about fantastical beasts. Wings of Sorrow and Bone is a perfect jumping on point to a short, sweet, immensely satisfying steampunk series—and for existing readers, this novella is a great peak at the playful, sweet, gremlins we love!


About the Book:

After being rescued by Octavia Leander from the slums of Caskentia, Rivka Stout is adjusting to her new life in Tamarania. But it’s hard for a blossoming machinist like herself to fit in with proper society, and she’d much rather be tinkering with her tools than at a hoity-toity party any day.

When Rivka stumbles into a laboratory run by the powerful Balthazar Cody, she also discovers a sinister plot involving chimera gremlins and the violent Arena game Warriors. The innocent creatures will end up hurt, or worse, if Rivka doesn’t find a way to stop Mr. Cody. And to do that means she will have to rely on some unexpected new friends.


About the Author:

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair outside of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a number-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.