New this week
The latest additions to The Library's collection
If you have a complete or in-progress work you’d like added to The Library or an indie-published book to include in the Buy Indie section, follow this guide, and we’ll help spread the word.
And thanks again to everyone for helping us support indie authors!
In the stacks
Speculative
The Castle Of The Naked Knights (TCOTNK) | Bertus | Speculative (N) (I) (F)
A strange little festival in the 1950's inspires a picture book and it will take a hundred years before its full reach becomes clear. Be careful with what you draw. Excerpt from the diary of Season 3: I'm ready to go. Didn't sleep. Finally it becomes light. I'm afraid. Once again I step out of my safety. That is unwise. I am unwise. That's exactly what I have to do. That's exactly what I don't want. I'm not ready to go at all. A bike ride of a thousand kilometers requires preparation. Not just inner urge. Not just a bike with potential. Purpleness doesn't matter, bicycle-bags do. And food, money, rain-gear. And I need to take what I don't want to leave behind. I'm standing at my drawing table crying. The smooth door on the dressers has served me well. How many hours have I sat under the dirty block window? How long is the line of ink that has flowed from my scratchy pens? How many colours did I layer on top of each other? Flow, I have to flow, every day. How is that possible on the road? Where do I leave what comes next? What comes next if I leave?
The Darkspire Conspiracy | Brothers Krynn | Speculative (N) (I) (F)→($)
The village of Heiðrrán was tiny, isolated, and hardly ever drew attention from the outside world. But there was something special about it, for it had ten years ago had the honour of having the daughter of the finest fisher-woman in the village sent off to foster with the local Jarl. That was twelve years ago, and now that daughter, Sigrún, has returned. Bringing with her wealthy gifts from the Jarl, with the celebration welcoming her home ruined by an unexpected, sepulchral figure and the unexpected murder of the Jarl Helgi (her foster-father). Now Sigrún and her family and friends must embark on a whirlwind quest of passion, vengeance, and valour all to save the kingdom of Norvech and to defy the most wicked figure in the history of the kingdom, who lies within the mysterious and previously thought lost Darkspire.
In Different Color | Sam Rake | Fairy Tale (N) (I) (F)
In Different Color follows Mr. Grey, a clickety-clackety-word-machine operator at the Starharbor Regional Justice Center. When a girl named Jodee Coats kicks a hole in the Cubicle Hedge and breaks Starharbor's Odormoat law, Mr. Grey takes a vacation to follow her. Legally. What begins as a simple marble train ride, however, quickly turns into a vacation of trials. Mr. Grey will wind up flying a windmill through a cloud of birds with sour beaks. He’ll travel through giant, undersea bubbles by the parching light of a sunny fish. Chased by a hot-air-balloon saucepan, he’ll copilot a steam swan through the moonlit woods of Dreamland. With the help of Honeydew - a wiz with probabilities - and the hobo Tom, Mr. Grey will confront all this and more; with nary an excess blink.
The Hollow Men, Or, The Opera Ghost | Iris Shaw | Speculative (NT) (C) (F)
Martin writes a message on a piece of scenery and brings a ghost to life. Years later, the ghost is still there, and though Martin forgot about it long ago, it hasn’t forgotten him.
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Buy Indie
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From the Archive
Featuring a different, randomly selected book every week
Faire Exchange | Alex Scott | Fantasy, Middle Grade (N) (C) (F)
Jeremy is terrified of the new girl. Zoe despises her. Martin got hit by one of her spells. Gregg can't take his eyes off her. Nadia accidentally became her best friend. Halley looks up to her. Her fellow Faire Folk can't stand her.
Tsarina "Rina" Algruent—that's Lady Rina to you—is one of many children from the realm of Faerie sent to human schools as part of a new exchange program to restore relations with Earth. But when she joins Mrs. Horn's fifth grade class, Lady Rina quickly begins terrorizing her classmates with magical pranks. While other kids at other schools are enchanted with their new guests, Rina's behavior is so cursed it threatens to cause an interdimensional incident.
Thanks so much for including my serial in your catalogue of stories!
Great additions!