Random House Worlds

The Overworld is in trouble.

On the ground, a rampaging army of armor-clad zombies is roving across the biomes. In the sky, a wicked Wither is leaving a path of destruction-and Wither roses-wherever it goes.

And in Bobbie's party, the tension is tighter than a skeleton's bowstring . . . because, somehow, Logan just became its newest member. The same Logan who set zombies on Bobbie's village and turned her little brother, Johnny, into one of the walking dead. Who bullied her friend Ben and wrecked his adventuring career. Who was mean to his minion, Other Ben (who prefers Benjamin, actually). But as the Wither skulls start flying, this not-so-merry band needs all the help it can get.

Bobbie hasn't forgotten her main mission: Find the zombified villagers who were once her friends and family and feed them the enchanted golden apples that will turn them back. But as long as the Wither exists, there's danger. And if there's danger, it's a hero's job to fix it. As much as Bobbie dislikes heroes, she and her friends (and also Logan) look like the closest thing the Overworld's got.

In this sly and dazzling contemporary fantasy, the most notorious nine-tailed fox in Korea pairs up with a trickster god-turned-detective to track down a wrathful demon . . . before it can destroy the mortal world.

"Enchanting fantasy . . . With an intoxicating mix of action, mystery, and deliciously angsty romance, this reads like the most bingeable K-drama."-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Kim Hani has retired from a life of devouring souls. She is, simply put, too full. Once known as the infamous Scarlet Fox, she now spends her days working in a coffee shop and annoying a particularly irritating, if unfairly handsome, trickster god as often as she can.

That god is Seokga the Fallen. Exiled from the heavenly kingdom of Okhwang, he now begrudgingly resides in the mortal realm, working toward his redemption and suffering through his interactions with the particularly infuriating, if sneakily charming, gumiho barista at his favorite café.

But when a powerful demon escapes from the underworld and threatens to end all of humanity, Okhwang's emperor offers Seokga an enticing bargain: Kill this rogue creature, as well as the legendary and elusive Scarlet Fox, and he will be reinstated as a god. Hani, however, has no intention of being caught. Seokga might be a trickster god, but she has a trick of her own that he'll never see coming: teaming up. As Seokga's assistant, Hani will undermine and sabotage his investigation right under his overly pointy nose. Sure, she'll help him kill the demon, but she certainly won't allow him to uncover her secret identity while they're at it.

As the bickering partners track their case down a path of mayhem and violence, the god and the gumiho find themselves inescapably drawn to each other. But will the unlikely couple stand together to prevent the apocalypse, or will they let their secrets tear them-and the world-apart?

Like On a Pale Horse, this second, complete-in-itself novel of the Incarnations of Immortality is a richly imagined and always fascinating story. And again, Piers Anthony adds to his gripping plot a serious, though-provoking study of good and evil.

When life seemed pointless to Norton, he accepted the position as the Incarnation of Time, even though it meant living backward from present to past.

The other seemily all-powerful Incarnates of Immortality-Death, Fate, War, and Nature-made him welcome. Even Satan greeted him with gifts. But he soon discovered that the gifts were cunning traps. While he had been distracted, he had become enmeshed in a complex scheme of the Evil One to destroy all that was good.

In the end, armed with only the Hourglass, Norton was forced to confront the immense power of Satan directly. And though Satan banished him to Hell, he was resolved to fight on.