The Fall

October 22, 2018
The second volume of Townsend’s Thieves of Fate series (following The Nine) returns to her alternate Earth, where science is the prevailing religion and the planet’s most courageous resident is 14-year-old street rat Rowena Downshire. Rowena’s perilous life was radically altered when she came under the wing of the Alchemist and encountered a book that was the work of science-minded God. The book identified the Nine, the creator’s current test subjects for the experiment of creation; one of them is Rowena. Now the Alchemist’s companions have learned that some of the Nine are members of nonhuman races—and the book has fallen into the hands of a troublemaking nonhuman who wants to kill the Nine, ending the experiment and all creation with it. Rowena’s life is no longer gritty, but Townsend ratchets up the tension by increasing the danger with higher-stakes plots and complex intrigue. Readers get a broader view of the intricate worldbuilding, including the fabulous Grand Library of Nippon, through Rowena’s eyes. Fans of genre-bending science fiction will want to take another journey to Townsend’s clockwork realms. Agent: Bridget Smith, Dunham Literary.

December 1, 2018

Eight months earlier, 14-year-old street rat Rowena Downshire was an underworld courier who crossed paths with the Alchemist over a lost package that contained a magical book listing the Nine, whom God is watching to determine whether His grand experiment--the world--is worth keeping. Now working as a clerk for the Alchemist, Rowena has discovered she's one of the Nine and tries to stay under the radar. But then Anselm Meteron and the Alchemist are called to travel partway across the world and escort the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers, a scholar of the Creator's work, to the Grand Library of Nippon. Revelations abound that will lead Rowena and her friends into a race against a nonhuman who wants to destroy the Nine and the Creator's Grand Experiment, along with the universe itself. High-stakes action and a cast of intriguing characters run with the science-as-religion concept to a stunning conclusion. VERDICT This sequel to The Nine is a twisting tale of science, faith, and creatures beyond imagination. Townsend's worldbuilding is rich and complex, illuminating a captivating alternate Earth.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

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