The Shortlist
6 stories
A Grace of Crowns | ☑ Queenkiller, Kingmaker #1 by AM-Prabeswar
AM-Prabeswar
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❖ QUEENKILLER, KINGMAKER Book 1 ❖ Feudal Southeast-Asia filled with magic, daemons, and a royal conspiracy. This is Isla's quest for the truth, and her slow spiral into becoming her very own worst nightmare. When the gods ascended thousands of years ago, they left behind the divine gift of theurgy. Its powers still echo amongst men, but run fiercer yet in the blood of kings and queens. And one of them will stop at nothing before Isla is dead. A betrayal lures her out of refuge and into her journey home, where she must unmask her enemies before they unmask her. The theurgy that she has had to keep hidden for many years can be her greatest ally or her most lethal foil. Only her wits can guide her through the dangerous politics of the Surikh court. But amidst the plots and schemes bubbling around her, she uncovers something far more sinister than the identity of her enemies. Something that can change her entire life; indeed, entire kingdoms. ↝ this work contains violence, profanity, and sexual references ↜ ↝ Winner of Wattys 2016 HQ Love Award ↝ Winner of FANTASCI's first season Chosen One awards ↝ Winner of The Cryptic Awards 2018 ↝ Featured in Fantasy as of 18-01-2017 ↝ Wattpad Editor's Pick January 2021
Knife of Rebellion: Battles of Eyenwar, Book 1  by AislinnForbes
AislinnForbes
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Adelina Mystica Bendithio has been overshadowed by her beautiful cousin Mirabel her whole life, until the month of her fifteenth birthday when she is told that she is one of the lucky few claimed by the powerful spirits of Eyenwar. To Adelina, this is a relief. It explains the glowing threads she can see whenever something bleeds. When Adelina is forced to accompany her cousin Mirabel across the continent, fate brings her face to face with an evil that might be closer related to her family than she could ever have thought.
Victor Hart: Volume 1 (winner of 1st prize Litarium Steampunk Competition) by RKLawrence
RKLawrence
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In a Futurist-Victorian London, Ex-Carnie Victor Hart makes his living as a dinner party entertainer and mountebank, using the skills taught to him by his Romani mother – the Patterns. When tragedy strikes a wealthy friend, Victor Hart puts his skills to use in an alternative manner. This Steampunk London has its fair share of psychos, sickos, and sadists, and it takes a special kind of mind to hunt them. Victor sees human behaviour in a way few others can understand but only as an outsider; certain parts of his humanity are missing and that disturbs him. As he solves each seemingly unrelated case, a dark pattern slowly begins to reveal itself threatening the heart of the British Empire and even what we feel makes us human. A Steampunk-detective-noir, darker than most, the first volume features four thrilling cases; the first novel in a Duology.
The Pursuit of Excellence by SkyCastles
SkyCastles
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My mother fled Somalia as soon as the war broke out. She left the land that held skies laden with views of the hidden night, and had seas a more pristine blue than anything I could imagine. She came to a foreign land where she was unwanted and unappreciated, and had to rebuild herself from scratch. And it was from this, that I learned to go into a lonely pursuit of excellence. [based on several true stories]
The Emperor's Edge by LindsayBuroker
LindsayBuroker
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Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed. Worse, Sicarius, the empire's most notorious assassin, is in town. He's tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills... or someone wants her dead.