Siggy J. Alexie is a troubled young woman. Taken from her family as a toddler, abandoned by her adoptive mother into the foster care system as a preteen, she is haunted by a history of abandonment, abuse, and mental health issues. She is also haunted by a demon. Siggy sees ghosts and demons, has conversations with beings she knows aren’t really there, suffers from cluster headaches, coffee addiction, and terminal bad language, and has a hot temper that just won’t quit. She lives in a crappy trailer in the woods in Bearpaw, Michigan-alone, just the way she likes it. But then she goes and does something heroic, and screws up her rotten life even further. She steps in to save the life of Bane, a glitter-punk rock star . . . who turns out to be a very gifted assassin, sent to uncomplicated a lot of lives by ending hers. Because the DNA test kit Siggy had sent in response to a junk mail advertisement has alerted some very dangerous people to the fact of Siggy’s existence, and a magical heritage she didn’t know was hers.

Bane, in her debt, allows Siggy to escape-for now. Newly homeless, jobless, and perpetually friendless, Siggy takes the one avenue open to her; she travels to Alaska to meet the grandfather who has reached out to her. Siggy isn’t sure what kind of reunion she might expect, but she certainly isn’t prepared for the reality of Alaska, shabby and breathtaking at once, or the complicated dance of adoption reunion. Or fish head soup. Or a whirlpool in the river that leads to the Underworld . . . and the answers to questions she didn’t even know she had. In order to learn who-and what-she really is, and in order to spare her young niece the same fate she’d suffered as a child, Siggy must travel to the Underworld and meet the grandmother who’d been waiting there for her, become a raven, trick a witch, and convince an arch-demon to make her a weapon fit for a hero.

Deborah A. Wolf presents an epic fantasy in the tradition of Guy Gavriel Kay and Jacqueline Carey.

In the heart of the singing desert, the people are fading from the world. Mothers bear few live children, the warriors and wardens are hard-pressed to protect those who remain, and the vash’ai–the great cats who have called the people kithren for as long as there have been stories–bond with fewer humans each year. High above, the Sun Dragon sings a song of life and love while far below, the Earth Dragon slumbers as she has since the beginning of time. Her sleep is fitful, and from the darkness of her dreams come whispers of war … and death.

Sulema is a newly minted warrior of the people and a true Ja’Akari–a daughter of the unforgiving desert. When a mysterious young man appears in her home of Aish Kalumm, she learns that the Dragon King is dying in distant Atualon. As the king fades, so does the magic that sings the Earth Dragon to sleep.

There are those who wish to keep the dragon trapped in endless slumber. Others would tap her power to claim it for their own. And there are those who would have her wake, so they might laugh as the world burns.

Sulema Ja’Akari is an elite warrior, one of the desert people known as the Zeeranim. She is also the daughter of the Dragon King of Atualon, whose magic is the only thing that prevents the earth dragon from waking. Should the dragon end her sleep, their world will be destroyed.

The Dragon King is dying. As heir to his throne, Sulema must be trained to take his place, yet the more she learns, the less she trusts the sinister agendas that surround her. Knowing that her life hangs in the balance, Sulema seeks to return to the Zeera.

Salvation may lie with her mother, Hafsa Azeina, who walks the dark and deadly pathways of the Dreaming Lands. To save her daughter, the dreamshifter will be forced to strike a pact with her greatest enemy, a huntress who would rather kill her than assist her.

Upheaval stretches far beyond Atualon–to the forbidden city of Khanbul where the emperor rules with an iron hand. An elite cadre of rebel conspirators chafes beneath his rule and plots to overthrow him.

Among them is Jian de Allyr, the half-dae prince born of a human mother and a twilight lord. If they are to challenge the emperor in his stronghold, however, Jian and his co-conspirators must secretly raise an army.

This book, while following the previous stories, focuses a great deal on the Illindrist, Aasah, and his apprentice Yaela, strange people with stranger powers who come from a land of salt and fire.

In the days of the Sundering, Quarabala–the Seared Lands–were cursed by Akari Sun Dragon and scorched beyond all recognition. Now a cruel place inhabited by nightmare beasts, the Seared Lands are home to a desperate few; and as fears of a second Sundering grow, these people look to greener lands. If no place is found for them, they will seize new lands from the soft hands of Those Who Dwell Above.

They have nowhere else to go, they have nothing to lose …