The Court of the Air Stephen Hunt 9780007232185 [USED COPY]

A hugely engaging adventure set in a Victorian-style world - a fantastical version of Dickens - that will appeal to fans of Susanna Clarke and Philip Pullman.

Two orphans are more than they seem. And one megalomaniac will stop at nothing to find them...

When Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has just been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to return to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was in fact the real target of the attack. For Molly carries a secret deep in her blood, a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state. Soon Molly will find herself battling a grave threat to civilization which draws on an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago.

Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered life in the home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder he is forced to flee for his life. He is accompanied by Harry Stave, an agent of the Court of the Air - a shadowy organization independent of the government that acts as the final judiciary of the land, ensuring that order prevails. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life, but which may also offer him the power to avert the coming catastrophe.

Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but Molly and Oliver are joined by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue and adventure.

Stephen Hunt set up one of the first science fiction and fantasy websites, www.SFcrowsnest.com, in 1994. Today the site has 340,000 readers a month. Stephen Hunt is in his thirties and lives with his wife and children in Surrey.

'An inventive, ambitious work, full of wonders and marvels' Lisa Tuttle, The Times

'The characters are convincing and colourful, but the real achievement is the setting, a hellish take on Victorian London ... the depth and complexity of Hunt's vision makes it compulsive reading for all ages' Guardian

'Wonderfully assured ... Hunt knows what his audience like and gives it to them with a sardonic wit and carefully developed tension' Time Out

'Studded with invention' Independent

'Rich and colourful ... keeps you engrossed ... a confident, audacious novel' SFX

'Like a magpie, Stephen Hunt has plucked colourful events from history and politics and used them for inspiration ... Hunts tells his full-blooded tale with lip-smacking relish, revealing a vivid, often gruesome imagination ... T'he Court of the Air' brims with originality and, from the first, its chase-filled plot never lets up' Starburst

'The best book of 2007 ... Think Joan Aiken for grown-ups, with echoes of Susanna Clarke ... hugely enjoyable' Historical Novels Review