The fate of the Cinder Spires may be decided by crossed swords in the next exhilarating fantasy adventure from the author of the Dresden Files, in this New York Times bestselling series of noble families, swordplay, and airships. For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defense and trade. Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war. Everyone knows it's coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora's Armada and its new secret weapon--one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires. A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch's diplomatic agents. It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion--assuming that it is not already too late.
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21 books in catalog
Long-running urban fantasy and epic fantasy sagas often hinge on distinct magic systems and sharp narrative voices, as demonstrated in the Chicago-set investigative wizard series starting with Storm Front. Author Jim Butcher launched this universe while studying at the University of Oklahoma, blending hardboiled detective tropes with modern supernatural fiction.
Born on October 26, 1971, in Independence, Missouri, Jim Butcher was the youngest of three children. In the early 1990s, he adopted the online moniker Longshot upon committing to a career as a fiction writer, acknowledging the steep odds facing aspiring novelists. His breakthrough came after developing a manuscript for a class assignment about wizard private investigator Harry Dresden, which grew into the multi-volume Dresden Files series. Butcher expanded his repertoire beyond urban fantasy by launching the high-fantasy Codex Alera series with Furies of Calderon and the steampunk Cinder Spires series with The Aeronaut's Windlass. Outside of writing, his background includes fifteen years of martial arts practice in styles such as Ryukyu Kempo, Tae Kwon Do, Goju Shorei Ryu, and Kung Fu, alongside work as a summer camp horse wrangler, stunt rider, and fencer.
Butcher's narrative approach relies on fast-paced first-person perspective, sardonic humor, and meticulous world-building that treats magical mechanics with internal consistency. In his urban fantasy work, mundane urban settings exist alongside hidden supernatural hierarchies, forcing characters to navigate bureaucratic, political, and physical dangers. His high fantasy and steampunk works similarly feature structured elemental bonding and airship logistics, drawing on his personal interest in tabletop role-playing games, live-action gaming, and combat martial arts to inform tactical action sequences.
The Cinder Spires
