The fan group for the fans of STEPHEN HUNT'S fantasy and science fiction novels set in the Kingdom of Jackals. So far, they include The Court of the Air, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, and The Rise of the Iron Moon (HarperCollins Voyager in the UK/Tor in the US/ and many other foreign publishers in Europe and Asia).
They're more or less 80% fantasy, 5% steampunk (or steam punk if you prefer), and 15% science fiction (in the sci-fi tradition of Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, David Gemmell and Michael Moorcock).
All three novels are standalone adventures set in Hunt's Jackelian fantasy world, a land where electricity has turned wild and unreliable and civilization relies on steampower, nano-mechanical systems and high-tension clockwork to survive. Where the powerful Kingdom of Jackals is protected by an airship navy in a dangerous world full of exotic races and lost wonders from an earlier age.
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THE RISE OF THE IRON MOON - Out February 2009 in hardback
Born into captivity as a product of the Royal Breeding House, friendless orphan Purity Drake suddenly finds herself on the run with a foreign vagrant from the North after accidentally killing one of her guards.
Her strange rescuer claims he is on the run himself from terrible forces who mean to enslave the Kingdom of Jackals as they conquered his own nation. Purity doubts his story, until reports begin to filter through from Jackals' neighbours of the terrible Army of Shadows, marching across the continent and sweeping all before them. But there's more to Purity than meets the eye.
As the Kingdom girds itself for war against an army of near-unkillable beasts serving an ancient evil with a terrible secret, it soon becomes clear that their only hope is a strange little royalist girl and the last, desperate plan of an escaped slave.
UPDATE: Due to be book of the month in UK branches of Waterstones and Borders, Feb 2009 (so you won't have to look too hard to find it).
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THE KINGDOM BEYOND THE WAVES - published 2008
Professor Amelia Harsh is obsessed with finding the lost civilization of Camlantis, a legendary city from pre-history that is said to have conquered hunger, war and disease - tempering the race of man's baser instincts by the creation of the perfect pacifist society. It is an obsession that is to cost her dearly. She returns home to Jackals from her latest archaeological misadventure to discover that the university council has finally stripped her of her position in retaliation for her heretical research.
Without official funding, Amelia has no choice but to accept the offer of patronage from the man she blames for her father's bankruptcy and suicide, the fiercely intelligent and incredibly wealthy Abraham Quest. He has an ancient crystal-book that suggests the Camlantean ruins are buried under one of the sea-like lakes that dot the murderous jungles of Liongeli. Amelia undertakes an expedition deep into the dark heart of the jungle, blackmailing her old friend Commodore Black into ferrying her along the huge river of the Shedarkshe on his ancient u-boat.
With an untrustworthy crew of freed convicts, Quest's force of female mercenaries on board and a lunatic steamman safari hunter acting as their guide, Amelia's luck can hardly get any worse. But she's as yet unaware that her quest for the perfect society is about to bring her own world to the brink of destruction!
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THE COURT OF THE AIR - published 2007
When streetwise Molly Templar witnesses a brutal murder at the brothel she has recently been apprenticed to, her first instinct is to run back to the poorhouse where she grew up. But there she finds her fellow orphans butchered, and it slowly dawns on her that she was the real target of the attack. For Molly is a special little girl, and she carries a secret that marks her out for destruction by enemies of the state.
Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered existence in the backwater home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder he is forced to flee for his life, accompanied by an agent of the mysterious Court of the Air. Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life.
Soon Molly and Oliver will find themselves battling a grave threat to civilization, an ancient power thought to have been quelled millennia ago. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but the two orphans are also aided by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue, and adventure.
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Published in the UK/Canada/Austalia and New Zealand by HarperCollins (along with their other two fantasy authors, JRR Tolkien (Lord of the Rings) and CS Lewis (Narnia).
Foreign language and international editions of the three novels of the Jackelian series have been sold to Tor Books (USA), Albin Michel (France), Verlagsgruppe Random House (Germany), Enterbrain Manga and Anime (Japan), Edições Saída de Emergência (Portugal), Paidós (Spain), AST (Russia), and the Anhui Literature and Art Publishing House (China).
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