Strangely Beautiful

Cairo in the 1860s is a bustling metropolis where people from all walks of life mix and mingle, mostly in complex harmony. When evil ghosts and unquiet spirits stalk the city's streets, the Guard are summoned-six young men and women of different cultures, backgrounds, and faiths, gifted by their Goddess with great powers. While others of the Guard embrace their duties, their leader, British-born Beatrice, is gripped by doubt. What right has she, a bookish, sheltered, eighteen-year-old, to lead others into battle? Why isn't dark-eyed, compelling Ibrahim, who is stronger of will than Beatrice, the one in charge? Ghosts maraud through Cairo's streets, heralding a terrible darkness. Beatrice and her Guard have little time to master their powers; a great battle looms as an ancient prophecy roars toward its final, deadly conclusion. This enchanting prequel to Leanna Renee Hieber's gaslamp fantasy, Strangely Beautiful, returns to print after more than a decade, edited and revised for Tor's publication. Strangely Beautiful series Strangely Beautiful Perilous Prophecy Miss Violet and the Great War The Eterna Files series The Eterna Files Eterna and Omega The Eterna Solution At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A superb, standalone adventure in Leanna Renee Hieber's groundbreaking, critically acclaimed Strangely Beautiful series, full of passion and power. From childhood, Violet Rychman has dreamed of a coming war, of death and battle on an unimaginable scale. She has seen and heard ghosts, who have loved and guided her. Now the future she dreamed has come to pass. World War I rages across Europe. Millions of people are dying; entire villages are disappearing. A great and terrible vision sweeps over Violet, offering powers heralded by the Muses of antiquity. The ability to impact people's memories, even shape their thoughts. To guide their souls. To pass between the world of the living and that of the dead and to bring others through that passage. These and other gifts once belonged to people Violet loved. Now they are hers, and she must use them to attempt to stop death itself.

Originally published as two books, Strangely Beautiful unites Leanna Renee Hieber's critically acclaimed novels in a single revised volume, restoring the author's original vision for the work. Miss Persephone Parker-known as Percy-is different, with her lustrous, snow-white hair, pearlescent pale skin, and uncanny ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Seeking to continue her education, Percy has come to Queen Victoria's London, to the Athens Academy. What she will learn there will change her life forever. Athens Academy is the citadel of The Guard, an ancient order that battles the forces of evil. The Victorian Guard, led by professor Alexi Rychman, is incomplete. They cannot defeat Jack the Ripper- who is more than the serial killer he appears to be-or the greater monster his appearance heralds. Percy's lifelong habit of concealment combined with Alexi's fevered search for the Guard's missing seventh nearly prove disastrous as ancient Greek myths begin playing out in modern, gaslit, Victorian London. Percy and her new friends and allies must overcome their preconceptions about each other and their own histories before they can set the world to rights. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.