Outside the walls of the gate of the deep, death awaits a sacrifice, a boy-yet-to-be-king. As a heavy snowfall settles across the silence of an English countryside, Nicolas Bennett finds himself at home on Christmas Eve, struggling with the possibility of forever having lost his once-found-new friends, Benjamin, Adelaide, and Ranulf. 

On a moonlit night in 1903, a mysterious young woman flees alone across the Canadian wilderness. Mary Bouton is 19 years old, half mad and widowed - by her own hand. Tearing through the forest, she is desperate, her nerves burning, and she is certain of only one thing - that two red-headed brothers, rifles across their backs, lurch close behind her. She has murdered their brother and their cold lust for vengeance is unswerving.

Broken. That's what the world is now. The Long Drought is over, but the rain that falls burns like acid. Young Aster Wood is weak compared to the other survivors who flock to the cities. But when he finds a ragged piece of parchment in a hidden corner of his father's childhood home, he is pulled through the cosmos to a place no one on Earth knows exists. Here, the grass grows green and Aster is healthy again. Now, he must chase down the long-lost sorcerer, Almara, to discover the truth about his family's past and to learn what is yet to come for Earth.

When her brother Toby vanishes so that even their mother has no memory of him, Nin realises the reason she still remembers is because whoever took Toby is about to take her too. Enter Skerridge the Bogeyman, who steals kids for Mr Strood. With his spindle, he winds away all the memory of Nin. She escapes to the Drift, a world filled with the Fabulous and Seven Sorcerers who once ruled the land. But what is the Sorcerer's secret?

The young magic-wielder known as Rhyen Hyldhem, newly graduated from the great Academy in Ikha, knows of the story of Taida - but such events occurred millennia ago. As war brews, however, Rhyen will learn more about his powers and the identity of the fearsome Dark Rider who has stalked him since childhood. Rhyen is about to discover the past isn't dead - and that his destiny is intricately tied to Taida's betrayal of humanity.

Our hero is Damiano Dalstrego. He is a wizard's son, an alchemist and the heir to dark magics. But he is also an innocent, a young scholar and musician befriended by the Archangel Raphael, who instructs him in the lute. To save his beloved city from war, Damiano leaves his cloistered life and sets out on a pilgrimage, seeking the aid of the powerful sorceress Saara as he must walk the narrow path between light and shadow, accompanied only by his talking dog.

When free-spirited Merisande flees into a cursed wood to avoid an unwanted marriage to Sir Avry, she finds herself in a hidden kingdom full of winged people who keep human slaves. Her betrothed follows her there, and they are both captured and enslaved.

Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning. Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room with a man pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.

It is the Black Dawn, a time of environmental apocalypse, the earth wracked and dying. It is the Bright Day, a time long generations hence, when a peace has descended across the world. In each era, a child shall be chosen. Their task is to find a dark messiah known only as the Crowman. But is he our savior - or the final incarnation of evil?

Geoffrey is the orphaned prince of Kaveg. He has chosen to follow a quest to find the fabled "queen with his own heart" who will heal his land. Nanda is an American stage combat choreographer just searching for a reason to live. They find each other, and they lose each other. Together, can they both find what they're looking for?

When Flint Fireforge, dwarf and metalsmith, receives a wondrous summons from the Speaker of the Sun, he journeys to the fabled elven city of Qualinost. There he meets Tanis, a thoughtful youth born of a tragic union between elf and man. Tanis and Flint, each a misfit in his own way, find themselves unlikely friends.But a pompous elf lord is mysteriously slain, and another elf soon meets the same fate. Tanis stands accused, and if his innocence cannot be proven, the half-elf will be banished forever.

The difference in their uncanny eyes could not be easily discerned. In the rays of the setting sun, both Aravel's and Morlan's eyes appeared gold. In the pale moonlight...yellow. Seemingly the same. Such inscrutable likeness is the way of things with identical twins. But all who knew the two brothers well noted unmistakable differences, peculiarities more experienced than seen. 

When Ned and his identical twin brother tumble from their raft into a raging river, only Ned survives. Villagers are convinced the wrong boy lived. But when a bandit king comes to steal the magic Ned's mother - a witch - is meant to protect, it's Ned who safeguards the magic and summons the strength to protect his family and community. Meanwhile, across the enchanted forest that borders Ned's village lives Aine, the resourceful and pragmatic daughter of the bandit king, who is haunted by her mother's last words to her: 'The wrong boy will save your life, and you will save his.'

Frey, Ovie, Juniper, and Runa are the Boneless Mercies - girls hired to kill quickly, quietly, and mercifully. But Frey is weary of the death trade and, having been raised on the heroic sagas of her people, dreams of a bigger life. When she hears of an unstoppable monster ravaging a nearby town, Frey decides this is the Mercies' one chance out. The fame and fortune of bringing down such a beast would ensure a new future for all the Mercies. In fact, her actions may change the story arc of women everywhere. 

A triumphant victory over the witches has proven that Princess Cadet Evie really does belong at Pennyroyal Academy. News of her heroism has traveled far and wide - inspiring a kingdom of grateful citizens and, when the new term starts, a wave of fresh Academy recruits. While it's good to be returning to the academy as a second-class cadet, things are not as they should be. Evie witnesses the vicious attack of an innocent woman - by a trio of princesses.