{"title":"A Novel Place Picks","description":"\u003cp\u003eSix handpicked science fiction and fantasy books to explore, from gentle wonder to darker worlds. Every choice stands alone or begins a series.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-goblin-emperor","title":"The Goblin Emperor","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSYNOPSIS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eUnbound Worlds 100 Best Fantasy Novels of All TimeA Best Fantasy Novel of the Decade Pick for BookRiot\"Challenging, invigorating, and unique. If court intrigue is your wine of choice, The Goblin Emperor is the headiest vintage I've come across in years.\"-Scott Lynch, bestselling author of The Lies of Locke LamoraThe youngest, half-goblin son of the Emperor has lived his entire life in exile, distant from the Imperial Court and the deadly intrigue that suffuses it. But when his father and three half brothers in line for the throne are killed in an \"accident,\" he has no choice but to take his place as the only surviving rightful heir.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEntirely unschooled in the art of court politics, he has no friends, no advisors, and the sure knowledge that whoever assassinated his father and brothers could make an attempt on his life at any moment. Surrounded by sycophants eager to curry favor with the naïve new emperor, and overwhelmed by the burdens of his new life, he can trust nobody. Amid the swirl of plots to depose him, offers of arranged marriages, and the specter of the unknown conspirators who lurk in the shadows, he must quickly adjust to life as the Goblin Emperor.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAll the while, he is alone, and trying to find even a single friend... and hoping for the possibility of romance, yet also vigilant against the unseen enemies that threaten him, lest he lose his throne - or his life.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paperback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54077066150171,"sku":"9781781087305","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/2533\/7627\/files\/IMG-7667.jpg?v=1790886852"},{"product_id":"the-best-of-all-possible-worlds","title":"The Best of All Possible Worlds","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSYNOPSIS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but come to discover that in order to preserve their culture, they may have to change it forever. Now a man and a woman from these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing race, and end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely team - one cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsive - just may find in each other their own destinies and a force that transcends all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paperback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54133697085723,"sku":"9781399618915","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/2533\/7627\/files\/9781399618915_88830991-3269-490b-b6d7-4ca8273116c7.jpg?v=1791452251"},{"product_id":"the-last-gifts-of-the-universe","title":"The Last Gifts of the Universe","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSYNOPSIS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA dying universe. A search for answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes. Scout is an archivist, searching the dead worlds of the cosmos for clues as to the fate of all these lost civilisations. While exploring another lifeless planet they discover something unbelievable: a message from a witness to that worlds-ending entity thousands of years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut uncovering the story and staying one step ahead of the profit-hungry corporation on their trail won’t be easy. Together with their brother and sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat Pumpkin, Scout must now race to save what matters most. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paperback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54133697249563,"sku":"9781804950647","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/2533\/7627\/files\/9781804950647.jpg?v=1791392589"},{"product_id":"the-gauntlet-and-the-fist-beneath","title":"The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSYNOPSIS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor 312 years the rotstorm has blighted the ruins of the Ferron Empire. Born of an unholy war between gods themselves, it scours the land with acid mists and deadly lightning, spawning twisted monstrosities from its nightmarish depths. On the Stormwall, the men and women of the Stormguard maintain their vigil — eyes sharp, blade sharper — defending the Undal Protectorate from the worst of the rotstorm’s corruption.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut behind the stormfront, something is stirring, kindling the embers of an ancient conflict and a plan to kill a god. Will Stormguard steel be enough to meet the coming tempest?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSergeant Floré Artollen patrols the wind-gnarled pines of Hookstone Forest for the Watch. But it wasn’t always so.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe spent years on the wall with the Stormguard, face to face with the bloodshed and horror of the rotstorm. With the storm now far beyond her western horizon, here she has a new life, a home, a husband and a daughter. But when roving lights descend from night skies, bright orbs of silver fire in the night, Floré’s village is devastated, her husband mortally wounded and her daughter abducted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo get her back, Floré will have to take up her longsword and silvered dagger, don the guard’s heavy metal plate gauntlets and step back into the storm.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paperback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54163925500187,"sku":"9781800244160","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/2533\/7627\/files\/9781800244160_3d1e3058-55ed-4124-bc16-d2cd8c44b538.jpg?v=1791454621"},{"product_id":"the-water-outlaws","title":"The Water Outlaws","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSYNOPSIS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eInspired by a classic of martial arts literature, S. L. Huang's The Water Outlaws are bandits of devastating ruthlessness, unseemly femininity, dangerous philosophies, and ungovernable gender who are ready to make history - or tear it apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own. Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor's soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job. Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away. Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice-for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They're also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats. Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTogether, they could bring down an empire.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hardback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54163925565723,"sku":"9781837861415","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/2533\/7627\/files\/9781837861415.jpg?v=1791454586"},{"product_id":"the-immortality-thief","title":"The Immortality Thief","description":"\u003ch3\u003eSYNOPSIS\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCrime doesn't pay - even when your punishment is to retrieve treasure from an abandoned spaceshipThis ship has been abandoned, leaving secrets and monsters behindLinguist and scoundrel Sean Wren is in trouble. Again. And this time, his sentence is to salvage the data of the Philosopher Stone experiments from an abandoned, long lost ship-before it explodes in a supernova.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut this spaceship isn't as abandoned as they thought. When Sean arrives with his crew, they discover the place is crawling with monsters, and some of its original residents still lurk in the shadows. Dark secrets are scrawled in languages only Sean can read.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorse, the Ministers, humanity's greatest oppressors, are also stalking the ship's empty corridors, seeking the same data. Trapped and with time running out, Sean will have to rely on his wits, his closest friend Benny, the monsters within, and the enemies around him to get out with the riches he was promised.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Paperback","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54163925696795,"sku":"9781786189851","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0674\/2533\/7627\/files\/9781786189851.jpg?v=1791454643"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.anpb.co.uk\/collections\/a-novel-place-picks.oembed","provider":"A Novel Place Bookshop ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}