Beneath A Starless Sky

‘A gripping WW2 story of love, betrayal and courage...This novel will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions... A great read!’ – Reader Reviewer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Munich: Smoke filled the air.

The smoke tingled in her nostrils. Acrid. Harsh. Lilli Sternberg's quickening heart sounded an alarm as she rounded the corner of the street. Lifting her gaze to the rooftops, she saw a roaring blaze of thick flames engulf the side of the building and join the stars to fill the black sky. Her father's shop was no more.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea. Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.

WINNER OF THE 2018 PEN OPEN BOOK AWARD "A rich and urgently necessary book" (New York Times Book Review), A Moonless, Starless Sky is a masterful, humane work of journalism by Alexis Okeowo--a vivid narrative of Africans who are courageously resisting their continent's wave of fundamentalism. In A Moonless, Starless Sky Okeowo weaves together four narratives that form a powerful tapestry of modern Africa: a young couple, kidnap victims of Joseph Kony's LRA; a Mauritanian waging a lonely campaign against modern-day slavery; a women's basketball team flourishing amid war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante who takes up arms against the extremist group Boko Haram. This debut book by one of America's most acclaimed young journalists illuminates the inner lives of ordinary people doing the extraordinary--lives that are too often hidden, underreported, or ignored by the rest of the world.

‘How did I not know anything about this?! A beautifully written book.’ – NetGalley Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ England: 1944

Jacqueline Carey is back with an amazing adventure not seen since her New York Times bestselling Kushiel's Legacy series. Lush and sensual, Starless introduces us to an epic world where exiled gods live among us, and a hero whose journey will resonate long after the last page is turned. I was nine years old the first time I tried to kill a man... Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert; yet there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him. In the court of the Sun-Blessed, Khai must learn to navigate deadly intrigue and his own conflicted identity...but in the far reaches of the western seas, the dark god Miasmus is rising, intent on nothing less than wholesale destruction. If Khai is to keep his soul’s twin Zariya alive, their only hope lies with an unlikely crew of prophecy-seekers on a journey that will take them farther beneath the starless skies than anyone can imagine. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Dungeons & Dragons became a cornerstone of gaming culture by providing players with dice, sheets of paper, and guidebooks that teased the imagination-all the tools they needed to build their own worlds. Influenced by all-night D&D sessions, the video game developers at Black Isle Studios and BioWare had a thought: Leave the dice-rolling to computers, letting players focus solely on creating characters and embarking on unforgettable adventures.The result was Baldur's Gate, a computer roleplaying game (CRPG) featuring breathtaking scenes, compelling characters, dozens of quests, and deep tactical battles. As financial turmoil plagued their parent company, a small team of developers broke away from Black Isle and set out to create unforgettable adventures of their own.From the early days of Fallout and Baldur's Gate, to the formation of Obsidian Entertainment and the company's fateful crowdfunding campaign that averted financial ruin, Beneath a Starless Sky explores the making of the Infinity Engine CRPGs and the critically acclaimed Pillars of Eternity franchise.-Based on over 40 hours of interviews with developers from Black Isle and Obsidian-Go behind-the-scenes to witness the creation of the celebrated Infinity Engine CRPGs: Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate II, and Icewind Dale II -Relive the dramatic moments that led to Obsidian's record-setting Kickstarter, and the making of 2015's Pillars of Eternity and 2018's Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire-Sit in on a discussion of the past, present, and future of roleplaying games with Obsidian's co-founders, writers, and directors