An apothecary clerk and her ex-mercenary allies travel across the world to discover a computing engine that leads to secrets she wasn't meant to know—secrets that could destroy humanity. Eight months ago, Rowena Downshire was a half-starved black market courier darting through the shadows of Corma's underside. Today, she's a (mostly) respectable clerk in the Alchemist's infamous apothecary shop, the Stone Scales, and certainly the last girl one would think qualified to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders a second time. Looks can be deceiving. When Anselm Meteron and the Alchemist receive an invitation to an old acquaintance's ball—the Greatduke who financed their final, disastrous mercenary mission fourteen years earlier—they're expecting blackmail, graft, or veiled threats related to the plot to steal the secrets of the Creator's Grand Experiment. They aren't expecting a job offer they can't refuse or a trip halfway across the world to rendezvous with the scholar whose research threw their lives into tumult: the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers. Escorting Chalmers to the Grand Library of Nippon with her mismatched mercenary family is just a grand adventure to Rowena until she discovers a powerful algebraic engine called the Aggregator. The Aggregator leads Rowena to questions about the Grand Experiment she was never meant to ask and answers she cannot be allowed to possess. With her reunited friends, Rowena must find a way to use the truths hidden in the Grand Library to disarm those who would hunt down the nine subjects of the Creator's Grand Experiment, threatening to close the book on this world.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
June 11, 2019 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781633884991
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781633884991
- File size: 1582 KB
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Accessibility
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The publisher provides the following statement about the accessibility of the EPUB file supplied to OverDrive. Experiences may vary across reading systems. After borrowing the book, you may download the EPUB files to read in another reading system.
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
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. -
Library Journal
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
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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