Most Popular Books by Sherwood Smith

Cece Robin is a simple fourth-grade schoolteacher. A chance meeting with a splinter group of the Resistance changes her life. She would never dream of getting involved in their plot to assassinate the Taelon leader Zo''or she''d never kill anyone-not even an alien Taelon! Her refusal makes her dangerous to the Resistance-and a suspect in the eyes of the Taelons. By great good luck she meets up with Augur, whom she puts in a terrible fix. He-the ultimate loner, whose credo is "I''m out for nobody but myself"-risks his cover, his life, and worst of all, possibly, the loss of some income, to save his favorite teacher from the Taelons and the Resistance. Can Augur save Cece without crippling the Resistance and destroying humanity''s hope for the future? Maybe. But for sure, he''s really going to mess up his social life!

Swashbuckling in a magic world-L.A. style! Sasharia en Garde! book 1. Sasha''s mother, Sun, was once swept away from a Ren Faire to another world by a prince-literally-but there was no happy ending. Sun''s prince disappeared, and a wicked king took the Khanerenth throne. In the years since, Sasha and Sun have been back on Earth and on the run. Mom and daughter don''t quite see eye to eye on the situation-Sasha wants to stand and fight. Sun insists her prince will return for them one day; it''s safer to stay hidden. Then Sasha is tricked into crossing the portal to Khanerenth. She''s more than ready to join the resistance, kick some bad-guy butt, and fix the broken kingdom. But...is the stylish pirate Zathdar the bad guy? Or artistic, dreamy Prince Jehan? Back on Earth, Sun is furious Sasha has been kidnapped. Sun might once have been a rotten princess, but nobody messes with Mom! Warning: This title contains a kick-butt mother-daughter team, a wicked king, a witty pirate with an unfortunate taste for neon colors, inept resistance fighters, a dreamy prince who gallops earnestly hither and yon, and a kick-butt princess in waiting.

In a time of change and danger, peace sparks to war, and sons become daughters... It''s nearly a century after the death of Inda, the unbeatable Marlovan commander. This is the first half of an epic story of politics, war, family and magic in the beloved world of Sartorias-deles.

When Wren''s traveling companion begins to meddle with magic, she must try to keep things in hand, turning her quest far more dangerous than she imagined it would be.

Nobody sane wants war, but what happens when war comes to you?In this first volume of The Norsunder War, the allies we met in The Rise of the Alliance series are faced with the news that their border has been invaded. For Atan, Queen of Sartor, preserving lives and knowledge come before fleeing to safety. Jilo of Chwahirsland risks his life to resist the return of an evil king. And for Senrid of Marloven Hess, it means fighting for every bloody inch against a combined army whose might hasn''t been seen for eight hundred years.Do they endure? Resist? How do they fight back?While one the run, they may discover that even when life is most dire, there is still hope . . .

The Sartorias-deles series culmination is here!The last book in the long series that began with Inda, continued through the Rise of the Alliance, Crown Duel, and The Norsunder War, comes at last to a resonant, deeply satisfying conclusion in Antiphony.Liere has attained the home she always longed for, though there are compromises: her children are scattered through the world, and she scarcely has time to adjust to her new life before she must use her dyr to prevent war. While elsewhere in the world, Chwahirsland is, at long last, reshaping itself to take place on the world stage. Not everyone is happy to see that.A hidden identity revealed, with repercussions resounding across three continents-a wanderer visits the most sophisticated court in the world, and everything stops-anomalies turn up. Meaning what? Or more importantly, when?The postwar saga reaches a milestone as individual lives as well as countries find new melodies and harmonies. While, unaware, the small grace notes hint at great change?

In this sequel to The Spy Princess, Lilah, newly made a princess, teams up with Atan, the hidden princess of the oldest country in the world, Sartor, to free the kingdom from a century of enchantment. Capture, escape, a forest beyond time, ancient beings, civilizations secreted in caves, and a deadly enemy await the girls. Atan knows that if she survives, the challenges facing a fifteen-year-old queen are only beginning.

Lilah is bursting with questions. Why are the local kids outside the palace so ragged? Why do they hate her? Why does her older brother Peitar--heir to their cold, controlling uncle, the king--write so many secret letters, and WHY won''t anyone tell her what the revolutionary slogan ''slam justice'' means? She disguises herself to find out. For the first time she makes friends, and meets the heroic young revolutionary leader, Derek.Then revolution breaks out.Lilah and her new friends become spies in order to help Peitar and Derek, who have been swept into the middle of unrest and danger.While no one on either side could have predicted that Lilah would be key to the new meaning of slam justice.

In a time of rising danger, women go to war, and ghosts walk the walls...A few years have passed since Danet and Arrow found themselves rulers of a disintegrating kingdom. They managed to establish peace as their children reach adulthood, but threats from the border become raids, aided by vicious brigands. The two princes, Noddy and Connar, newly emerged from the military academy, are dispatched to patrol the troubled area until they find themselves under attack.Their loyalty to one another is strong, but what happens when one brother discovers a taste for war and the other a loathing for it? Matters of marriage and love tangle up with the menace of war. But the greatest threat of all comes when the world''s strongest army faces enemies from within. This is the concluding half of an epic story of politics, war, family and magic in the beloved world of Sartorias-deles.

Teen-aged king Leander Tlennen-Hess has barely ruled a year when he and his stepsister Kitty (or Princess Kyale, as she wishes to be known) are surprised by a visitor who turns out to be Senrid, king of Marloven Hess. But Senrid is king in name only. His uncle, the regent, holds power, and Senrid must prove himself to be sufficiently strong by abducting for execution the two kids who thwarted the invasion.

"In this sequel to Lhind the Thief, Lhind has gone from castoffs to silks, back alleys to palace halls--and is not having an easy time of it. That''s before she''s snatched by an angry prince she''d robbed twice, who is determined to turn her over to the enemy who frightens her most, the sinister Emperor Jardis Dhes-Andis. When her own dear Hlanan comes to rescue her, it''s Lhind who has to do the rescuing, setting off a wild chase to fend off mercenaries and then to confront an entire army intent on invasion. Lhind and Hlanan try to negotiate the perilous waters of a relationship while on the run--straight into a trap. Just when Lhind is beginning to figure out where she might fit into the world, she finds herself alone again, surrounded by enemies, in one of the most dangerous courts in the world. And she begins to find out who she really is."--Amazon.com.

In this fantasy of manners we have two displaced young kings, one shopkeeper''s daughter who went away an ugly duckling and returns five years later a beautiful and highly skilled swan, and a young queen who is master of all she surveys . . . until she isn''t. The result is the last summer of love and adventure on the eve of cataclysm. The Wicked Skill, from a poem by John Donne, duels and dances with discovery of the many facets of love-set against a background of revolution, one conducted through manners, the other by swashbuckling youths who think life is a game . . .

The second volume of four begins with the loose alliance of young rulers, mages, scribes, friends, and ex-enemies on the run. The only place of safety is a tiny agrarian kingdom no one has ever heard of, though hints begin to surface that nothing there is quite what it seems.Some venture on quests for ancient magical artifacts that might aid them-but all those quests turn . . . sideways. And deadly.Meanwhile, Senrid, the Marloven warrior king, goes covert, staying one step ahead of the conquerors who want him dead. A pair of brothers, one on each side, begin a duel of wit and danger.And Jilo, the nerdy son of a lowly sergeant who has been singlehandedly striving to save the once-great Chwahir nation from an insane king, crosses a continent to carry a message-the easiest quest of all-with utterly unforeseen results.

The dramatic conclusion to the Lhind young adult fantasy series!When Lhind''s beloved Hlanan is taken by Shinjan slavers, she leaves her self-imposed exile to rush to the rescue. But first she must face a dragon, and learn world-changing truths about herself.Meanwhile, halfway across the world, imprisoned Hlanan labors to liberate fellow slaves of the evil Shinjan empire.Before they meet again, both must explore the difficult dimensions of honor, trust, and love.Failure means death. Success, bringing down two murderous tyrants-and forever changing the world.

Lhind has been on the run all her life.Stealing what she needs, using magic for disguise, she never stays anywhere long. Lhind even has secrets from herself, for she has few memories, and those are troubling. But life is good until she gets caught by Rajanas the warrior-prince, Thianra the bard, and Hlanan the scribe.And that''s when adventure begins, because someone very powerful wants them all dead. As they evade pursuit and work to uncover their enemies, Lhind struggles with the invisible bonds of friendship and trust, while Hlanan begins uncovering her secrets one by one. Then she finds that he has secrets, too.This young adult fantasy with a dash of romance takes place in the same world as A Posse of Princesses and the Wren series.

The final book in the Phoenix Feather and Sagacious series, Sagacious Blade brings the story full circle. It would be difficult to find two boys more unlike. Friendly, animal-loving Ki Mek, youngest of a sprawling family of gallant wanderers, was born with Essence talent-much to the dismay of the Kis, who only believe in the skills of their blades. Je Tai, the scholarly, reclusive only son of a subsidiary branch of the lofty Ji family, is on his way back to the school where he is studying divination. The two are swept overboard in a terrible storm, and end up made slaves by the western empire, age-old enemies of the Thousand Islands Empire. They escape into adventures martial and magical until they and those they love are swept up in a war spanning two empires. With the aid of Sagacious Blade, both will learn the costs of power...

The war is over, all but the cleanup. And the emotional recovery, with its scars both visible and invisible. Liere Fer Eider learns on the run how to become a queen, while Andri adjusts to life this side of the law. Senrid, in devastated Marloven Hess, has to straight-arm a rage-filled populace into peace. While on a faraway mountain Detlev at last oversees the rebuilding of his school for training re-emerging psychic powers after four millennia. . A few years pass, and everything seems to be settling into the new norm--until Liere wakes from a drugged sleep to an enemy who offers an impossible choice.

CJ and her gang of friends gather around the 13-year-old queen, Clair Sherwood, and find themselves beset by magical spells and various villains in the middle of Mearsies Heili''s woodland.

While attending the King''s Military Academy, Inda unwittingly becomes a pawn in a vicious political struggle among the nobility after he tries to save the life of a classmate, which compromises his honor and sparks a civil war, forcing him to start a new life as a ship''s boy on a merchant vessel where he must hide his true identity as he grows into manhood. Reprint.

An anthology of speculative fiction by women about women

The second book of an epic fantasy trilogy set in the beloved world of the Inda novels follows untested young rulers, who must cooperate to protect their world from a mysterious magical threat. Long-dormant magical forces are moving once again in Sartorias-deles. Agents of Norsunder, a mysterious bastion of incredible dark power, have reappeared in the world, amassing resources and sowing instability. Firejive continues the epic saga of political and magical threats leading to Norsunder''s return. Our heroes span continents and cultures, ambitions and desires, but share one characteristic: they are young leaders. Many are rulers of unstable nations, growing into their power and their identities, but they seek ways to trust and bind themselves together--and find the strength to defend against a host that has crushed entire worlds. Set in the complex world of Sartorias-deles, Sherwood Smith returns readers to the enthralling saga begun with the military action of the Inda series and continuing in the magic-based cultural drama of Banner of the Damned, bringing together deadly high politics, engaging worldbuilding, and nuanced examinations of power, love, and betrayal.

Twenty-five years ago a pair of lovers ran from an angry prince and washed up on an island where they took on new identities.Their eldest child, a natural martial artist like his father, seems destined for great things. The second son is an artist and a dreamer, and Mouse, the youngest-used to wearing her brothers'' clothes while trotting at their heels-is regarded by everyone as a third brother.All three were raised to keep their parents'' secret, but in this first volume they discover that children have their own paths, and parents cannot hold them back, especially when an omen drops out of the sky . . .

A light-hearted romantic comedy of manners set in Jane Austen''s Regency period as our two heroines step in time to the dance of love.

In this next volume of the epic martial arts adventure the children of the exiles and of the emperor test the boundaries of imperial power and intrigue.

Long-dormant magical forces are moving again in Sartorias-deles. In volume one, A Sword Named Truth, a shaky alliance made among young rulers brought too early to their thrones survived a first foray, commanded by Siamis, the handsome young Norsundrian who was born four thousand years ago. Siamis was defeated, and the world celebrated, believing peace had come! But the world''s mages know it''s not the quiet of peace-it''s the stillness before the storm. At the start of volume two, The Blood Mage Texts, the alliance seems to be a thing of the past as everyone is dealing with the fallout of the abortive attack. Rel the Traveler arrives back home to a surprise that has been awaiting him since he was first adopted, launching him on a personal quest. Jilo, the king who is not a king, finds what looks like dangerous magical texts and hands them off to his friend Senrid, young king of Marloven Hess, who is in the midst of wrestling with his warlike nation. When word gets out that these eight-hundred-year-old blood mage texts are in the ignorant hands of youngsters, all of Norsunder''s mages want them. Meanwhile Siamis has gone renegade, hunted by both sides. All the searches converge on Chwahirsland, furnishing new twists in the on-going saga of the alliance of young rulers . . .

All hunts converge on Chwahirsland, furnishing new twists in the on-going saga of the alliance of young rulers . . .

In this fantasy, Clair travels about the universe looking for girls who need a home. She finds CJ on Earth and takes her to another world to live as a princess.

The young allies are still recovering from earlier events when they discover they have been infiltrated by the enemy. Meet Detlev''s boys.

The last installment of The Phoenix Feather martial arts epic, which readers are acclaiming as a spiritual cousin to The Goblin Emperor, puts the entire Afan family in action. Once hiding on an obscure island, the elders are drawn into empire affairs, the parents, in seeking their children, as the emperor seeks them. Muin''s skills as a commander brings him to prominence in a terrible battle. Yskanda, imperial prisoner, transcends political boundaries through art-and comes to grip with his talents.Prince Jion, once a powerless wanderer, comes into his own as his beloved Ari inspires the world as Firebolt, before the two of them together face the most terrifying enemy of all. Inspired by the great Chinese epics such as Water Margin and Dream of Red Chamber as well as wuxia and xuanhuan series such as Nirvana in Fire and Joy of Life, the four volumes of this story sweep from the imperial military academy to wandering martial artists, from the poetic philosophizing of imperial courtiers to the everyday affairs of an innkeeper-and from the human world to the realm of the transcendent, before racing to a triumphant close.

In defeated Marloven Hess, two enemies, one a hunted king, the other the conqueror, duel for the soul of a conflicted teen. This short novel takes place afterThe Norsunder War: Ship Without Sails.

In 1799, all of Europe is at war. In Palermo, sixteen-year-old singer-in-training Anna Maria Ludovisi is married by her dying father to Captain Henry Duncannon, the Perennial Bachelor. Minutes after the wedding he sets sail. The threat of French invasion causes Anna to flee to Paris. At the end of the Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte is transforming France; Anna must transform herself into a professional singer in order to survive. in 1805, Anna''s opera company is traveling through Spain when events bring the long-missing Captain Duncannon and his forgotten wife back together again, as the English, Spanish, and French fleets converge for battle off the Cape of Trafalgar. For Henry Duncannon as well as Anna, everything changes: the demands of war, the obligation of family, the meaning of love, and the concept of home. Can they find a new life together? A romantic Napoleonic-period historical from Sherwood Smith, author of DANSE DE LA FOLIE.

Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock''s huge adventures have been thrilling children young and old for fifty years--and their appeal is as strong as ever in these handsome new paperback packages. While the original beloved interior illustrations by Beth and Joe Krush have been retained, Marla Frazee''s striking cover illustrations capture these little people with a larger-than-life appeal.

When wicked King Andreus declares war on the royal families of Meldrith, Wren and her friends, Princess Teressa, Prince Connor, and chief magic maker Tyron, determine to defeat him.