The Circus Stealers

"My guiltiest pleasure is Harry Stephen Keeler. He may been the greatest bad writer America has ever produced. Or perhaps the worst great writer. I do not know. There are few faults you can accuse him of that he is not guilty of. But I love him." -- Neil Gaiman There's nothing new under the sun in Idiots' Valley, home of Harry Stephen Keeler's Screwball Circus. Angus MacWhorter's circus has made it across Old Twistibus -- the windingest road in the world -- but there's still an important wagon that Rance Holly has to drive to catch up with the rest of the circus in Foleysburg, or the circus will be lost to rival entrepreneur, Wolf Gladish. There's no nuttier place in the country than Idiots' Valley, with its pack of illiterate bumpkins, and Harry and Hazel milk it for all it's worth in this first English-language edition of a Keeler classic!

Hoshiko and Ben are on the run but cannot hide forever... the deadliest show on earth has been resurrected and if Ben thought he'd seen into its dark corners as an outsider, the true extent of the horrors that lurk beneath the Big Top are about to be revealed as he becomes the circus' new star attraction...

On his birthday of all days, 13 year old Divi Rogallo gains unspeakable powers after slaying a gargantuan, dozen-headed Terrabird already bloodied and weakened by the army that failed to kill it, making him a person of interest for Clip Sharinggen who is seeking the final member of his mercenary group. The world in which they live is governed by video game mechanics that affect their lives. These mechanics are quantified attributes of a person or nonhuman animal such as life (HP), strength, defense, and speed. These mechanics play a serious role in the world, determining either success or failure for the characters. For this reason, Divi and his mercenary friends are constantly theorizing about these mechanics to ensure their own success. The group ventures through sublime natural landscapes and extreme climates, often to get a shot at their beloved bounty. The mechanics of this story are loosely based on RPG systems in video games and most recently: The Quantified Self Movement.