Cloaks

"A TREASURE!" --Three-time Hugo-winner Mary Robinette KowalOld Mr. Heldrick is every bit as dangerous as the kids imagine--not because he's a demented killer but because his house hides a portal to another world, and he's the guardian. When Bess is caught in his basement, she's forced to flee through that doorway, not knowing where it leads. She finds herself in a nightmare world controlled by black-cloaked, knife-wielding horsemen. Within minutes she's on the run. Lost and hungry, she steals and eats fruit from an orchard, which turns out to be poisonous and nearly kills her before she reaches a farm family who take her in. The family members hide her and nurse her back to health, at great risk to themselves. Then, just when she's nearly recovered, the trackers arrive...And that's when her problems really begin. Full of intrigue, suspense, and surprise, CLOAKS has been called "a shining example of the genre" by Nebula nominee Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. It will keep you glued until the last page.

An aging renegade. An aging tyrant. And a young woman who refuses to share her secrets with anyone. When two quistrils from the Citadel accost a young woman and Grayvle and Heldrick pull off a rescue, one of the quistrils escapes. All the quistrils of the Citadel are now bound to learn of Heldrick and Grayvle's continued existence and to set as a top priority the goal of capturing them. And Grayvle was injured during the rescue. Fortunately, Heldrick and the woman, Estrienn, are able to keep Grayvle alive long enough to get him some better medical attention. Unfortunately, Estrienn wants to remain with them and join in their fight. But Heldrick and Grayvle are themselves renegade quistrils: stronger, faster, and far better-trained than any non-quistril, let alone a mere woman. She will only get in their way. Yet Heldrick has underestimated a female once before. He doesn't intend to do so again. As time passes and Estrienn proves her intelligence and competence, he feels vindicated. He remains bothered, however, by Estrienn's refusal to tell them who she really is, where she's from, or what she was doing outside after curfew on a cold winter's night...and by whether to include her in what turns out to be his most audacious scheme yet.

The long-awaited third book in the CLOAKS series!Hundreds of years ago, the Settlers created the quistrils to kill for them, then die for them--ultimately leaving the planet empty for them. Their plans didn't work as expected, and now the Settlers are gone; but the quistrils remain, keeping the world stagnant under their authoritarian rule.Heldrick has been fighting a lone battle against quistril domination for years, but with the recent coup, he's suddenly become the Ascendant of Kallikot Citadel. It's a great opportunity to institute change--except that in order to secure his position, he seems forced into taking the very actions he's been fighting against. As if that weren't enough, Estrienn, one of his closest associates, is actually a spy for Norvenmot.But Estrienn has her own difficulties. Over the past six months her respect for Heldrick has grown, and she's fallen in love with Grayvle, Heldrick's prime lieutenant. Everything was fine while Heldrick and Grayvle were fighting against the Citadel, but now that Heldrick is in charge of it, her Norvenmot masters are pushing harder for information that she's no longer anxious to provide. No matter which course she takes, she'll feel like a traitor.Meanwhile, Norvenmot itself is hatching plans that not even Estrienn is aware of. And a small village near the Norvenmot-Kallikot border may just be getting ready to take actions that could spell disaster--for everyone. The course of F. A. FISHER's life was determined in utero, when he was introduced to science fiction and fantasy by way of his mother's reading THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA to his older sister. ​Though he grew up among the first generation where television was commonplace, his contrary nature meant that he spent most of his time reading. ​That contrariness continued in college, where he ignored his adviser and chose an area major, which allowed him to take whatever he wanted, with the result that his degree didn't prepare him for any job whatsoever-except perhaps writing.He was raised in an era without computers or even hand calculators, so naturally he got a master's degree in Computer Science. ​And though he loved learning he always hated school, so of course he got his second master's in Education. ​He'd wanted to become a writer from an early age, so it followed that he went through several other jobs, including two self-start companies, before putting out his first book.Somewhere along the way he developed a deep and abiding hatred for typos. ​Fortunately, by this time his contrariness has abated, so if you find a typo in any of his books, let him know, and he'll fix it.His books so far are CLOAKS, PANDIR DECLOAKED, THE GIRL IN THE CLOAK. The first two books in the series are also available in the omnibus edition A PAIR OF CLOAKS. Some doors are better left unopened...A door in the town recluse's basement leads to an alternate earth controlled by black-cloaked, knife-wielding horsemen.