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Authors: Jaida Jones,Danielle Bennett

Tags: #Romance, #Fantasy, #General, #Action & Adventure, #Fiction

Steelhands (2011)

BOOK: Steelhands (2011)
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Steelhands (2011)
Havemercy [4]
Jaida Jones Danielle Bennett
Spectra (2011)
Rating:
★★★★☆
Tags:
Romance, Fantasy, General, Action Adventure, Fiction
Romancettt Fantasyttt Generalttt Action Adventurettt Fictionttt
Product Description

With
Havemercy, Shadow Magic,
and
Dragon Soul,
the acclaimed writing team of Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett has fused magic and technology into something that can only be termed “magicpunk.” Their distinctive style, featuring a chorus of quirky first-person narrators and brilliantly sophisticated world-building, has won these young writers the plaudits of fans and critics.

In the Volstov capital of Thremedon, Owen Adamo, the hard-as-nails ex–Chief Sergeant of the Dragon Corps, learns that Volstov’s ruler, the Esar, has been secretly pursuing the possibility of resurrecting magically powered sentient robot dragons—even at the risk of igniting another war. That Adamo will not allow. Though he is not without friends—Royston, a powerful magician, and Balfour, a former corpsman—there is only so much Adamo and his allies can do. Adamo has been put out to pasture, given a professorship at the University. Royston, already exiled once, dares not risk the Esar’s wrath a second time. And Balfour, who lost both hands in the climactic battle of the war, is now a diplomat who spends most of his time trying to master his new hands—metal replacements that operate on the same magical principles as the dragons and have earned him an assortment of nicknames of which “Steelhands” is the least offensive.

But sometimes help comes where you least expect it. In this case, from two first-year university students freshly arrived in Thremedon from the country: Laurence, a feisty young woman whose father raised her to be the son he never had, and Toverre, her fiancé, a brilliant if neurotic dandy who would sooner share his wife-to-be’s clothes than her bed. When a mysterious illness strikes the first-year students, Laurence takes her suspicions to Adamo—and unwittingly sets in motion events that will change Volstov forever.

Biography From Wikipedia - Jaida Jones

Jaida Jones is an American fantasy author. Her most prominent work is the 2008 fantasy novel Havemercy, written with coauthor Danielle Bennett.

Jones is a student of Barnard College majoring in East Asian languages and cultures. Before becoming a published author Jones co-wrote a Harry Potter fan fiction story called "The Shoebox Project". She met Bennett in a Livejournal thread and the two started writing a novel together. The resulting novel, Havemercy, was picked up by Random House for an advance of $30,000 and published in 2008.

BY JAIDA JONES AND DANIELLE BENNETT

 

 

STEELHANDS

 

DRAGON SOUL

 

SHADOW MAGIC

 

HAVEMERCY

 

Steelhands
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2011 by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Spectra,
an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

 

S
PECTRA
and the portrayal of a boxed “s” are
trademarks of Random House, Inc.

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

 

Jones, Jaida.
Steelhands / Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52637-3
I. Bennett, Danielle. II. Title.
PS3610.O6256S74 2011
813′.6—dc22 2010054151

 

www.ballantinebooks.com

 

Map by Neil Gower

 

Jacket illustration: Paul Youll

 

v3.1

 

To Aunt Roberta and Uncle Michael,
for showing me the world outside Victoria

 

—Dani

 

For the one and only curator of the Secret Museum of the Air

 

—Jaida

 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
 

 

As always, we have to thank our fabulous and tireless editor at Spectra, Anne Groell, who has always given us more care than any one person (with a new baby!) should have time to give, and our agent, Tamar Rydzinski—same deal! We’re also incredibly grateful to our assistant editor, David Pomerico, and copy editor, Sara Schwager, without whom this book would be little more than a very heavy manuscript with
so
many errors. Once again, we have to thank ruthless Mom—who remains ruthless, and possibly even gets more ruthless with age; Uncle David, for ferrying us around in that glorious clown car; Grandma Fay and Grandpa Terry, who offer songs and jokes and stories; Nick, who makes the best pad thai ever; Bob, for occasionally using his indoor voice; Toni, for making sure we look fashionable whenever we have to leave the house; Taid, for not complaining too much about the typo; Marjorie, for the delicious fruit bread; Matthew, for always being on our side; Jonah, for the sound track to our lives; Andrew, for pretending we’re cool enough to hang out with him; and, of course, everyone at Thremedon, whose enthusiasm and creativity far surpass our own and remind us of why we love to write in the first place. Here’s looking at you, kids.

Contents
 
 
 

 
ONE
 

BOOK: Steelhands (2011)
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