For fans of The Golden Compass, this New York Times bestseller will take you on a fantastic journey across worlds and time. Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World—a world changed by the Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods. Eight years ago, Sophia's parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned.
Then Shadrack is kidnapped. Sophia must search for him with the help of Theo, a refugee from the West. Together they travel over rough terrain and uncharted ocean, encounter pirates and traders, and rely on a combination of Shadrack’s maps, common sense, and Sophia's unusual powers of observation. Little do they know that their lives are in as much danger as Shadrack's.
A New York Times Bestseller!“I am in no doubt about the energy of S.E. Grove as a full-fledged, pathfinding fantasist. I look forward to the next installment to place upon the pile. Intensely.”—Gregory Maguire, The New York Times Book Review
* “Wholly original and marvelous beyond compare.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
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New York Times Bestseller
An IndieBound National Bestseller
A Summer/Fall 2014 Indies Introduce New Voices Selection
A Top Ten Kid’s Next Selection
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Publishers Weekly Flying Start
A
Washington Post Summer Book Club Selection
A Junior Library Guild Selection
One of
Publishers Weekly’s Best Summer Reads
An Amazon Summer 2014 Reading Selection
An Amazon Top 20 Children’s/YA Book of 2014
An ABC Best Book of 2014
* “Brilliant in concept, breathtaking in scale and stellar in its worldbuilding; this is a world never before seen in fiction . . . Wholly original and marvelous beyond compare.”—
Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* “A thrilling, time-bending debut . . . It’s a cracking adventure, and Grove bolsters the action with commentary on xenophobia and government for hire, as well as a fascinating system of map magic.”—
Publishers Weekly, starred review
* “Stellar . . richly layered and emotionally engaging from the first page through to the intriguing cliffhanger end.”—
BCCB, starred review
* "A mind-blowing debut . . . The bookmaking behind this first novel is as elegant as the maps within it."—
Shelf Awareness, starred review
“Wonderful. This author's imagination is just amazing.”—Nancy Pearl on NPR.org
“I am in no doubt about the energy of S.E. Grove as a full-fledged, pathfinding fantasist. I look forward to the next installment to place upon the pile. Intensely.”—Gregory Maguire,
The New York Times Book Review “Not since Philip Pullman's
The Golden Compass have I seen such an original and compelling world built inside a book.”—Megan Whalen Turner,
New York Times bestselling author of
A Conspiracy of Kings “Absolutely marvelous. It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time.”—Nancy Farmer, National Book Award-winning author of
The House of the Scorpion
"A page-turner . . . So imaginative."—Meghan Cox Gurdon,
The Wall Street Journal
“Exuberantly imagined [and] exquisite."—Elizabeth Wein, New York Times best-selling author of
Code Name Verity