In this addictively readable futuristic Christian dystopia, Brouwer (The Last Disciple) takes readers inside a state run by literalistic, controlling fundamentalists. There, reading is a serious crime; citizens are drugged into submission; and those who break rules are either sent to slave labor factories or stoned to death. Occasionally, a few brave souls try to escape to "Outside." At the center of this novel is Caitlyn, a disfigured but graceful and brave young woman whose father essentially orders her to make a run for it.
The acclaimed artist Brom brilliantly displays his multiple extraordinary talents in The Child Thief a spellbinding re-imagining of the beloved Peter Pan story that carries readers through the perilous mist separating our world from the realm of Faerie. As Gregory Maguire did with his New York Times bestselling Wicked novels, Brom takes a classic children s tale and turns it inside-out, painting a Neverland that, like Maguire s Oz, is darker, richer, more complex than innocent world J.M. Barrie originally conceived.
It has been two years since Henry left the Faerie Realm and he has still not adjusted to life back in the Analogue World. But when Henry finds a middle aged Pyrgus in Mr. Fogarty’s backyard, he is compelled to return to the world he left so suddenly. A mysterious plague is spreading throughout the Realm causing faeries to age rapidly. No one knows what is causing it or how to cure it.
When Henry Atherton returned to his own life in the suburbs of London, he thought all was well in the Faerie Ream. His new friend Pyrgus, the crown prince of Faerie, was about to be coronated as Purple Emperor. But then Princess Holly Blue arrived on Earth, seeking Henry’s help once more. A plot to assassinate Pyrgus is afoot, but that’s not the worst of their problems. Pyrgus’s father, the murdered Purple Emperor, has been raised from the dead by means of foul necromantic sorcery.
Henry Atherton thinks his life is spinning out of control. But nothing prepares him for the invisible portal in old man Fogarty’s backyard . . . and the unexpected stranger who comes through it. Pyrgus Malvae, crown prince of the Faerie realm, is on the run. Too many people want the rebellious young heir dead: a scheming sorcerer, a powerful demon, the malignant leader of the Faeries of the Night, and maybe even a hidden traitor within his father’s court.
