An Excerpt from Bookburners Episode 1: Badge, Book, and
Candle
He set his hand on the book’s cover.
Sal hadn’t noticed before how the leather was discolored: most of it matched
Perry’s skin, but a crimson bloom spread beneath his fingers. She heard a sound
she couldn’t name: a footfall, maybe, or a whisper, very soft. Goose bumps
chased goose bumps up her arms.
“Perry, who are the Bookburners? Do you
think someone’s following you?”
“I thought you didn’t want to know.”
She leaned over the couch, over his shoulder,
and checked through the blinds. Street still bare. Red Toyota pickup. Honda
Civic. Garbage. E-Z Carpet Cleaner van.
“Please, Sal. They would have nabbed me
on the way. They did not. Ergo, I wasn’t followed.”
“What the hell is going on?”
Someone knocked on her door.
“Shit,” Perry said.
“Jesus Christ, Perry.” She grabbed her
phone off the living room table. “Who is that?”
“Aiden. Probably.”
“Mister Brooks?” The man on the other side of
the door was unquestionably not Aiden—too old, too sure, too calm. An accent
Sal couldn’t place twined through his words. “Mister Brooks, we’re not here to
hurt you. We want to talk.”
“Shit,” Perry repeated, for emphasis.
Sal ran to her bedroom and returned
with her gun. “Who are you?”
“I’m looking for Mister Brooks. I know
he’s in there.”
“If he is, I doubt he’d want to see
you.”
“I must talk with him.”
“Sir, I’m a police officer, and I’m
armed. Please step away from the door.”
“Has he opened the book?”
“What?” She looked into the living room. Perry
was standing now, holding the book, fingers clenched around the cover like
she’d seen men at bay clutch the handles of knives. “Sir, please leave. I’m
calling 9-1-1 now.” She pressed the autodial. The line clicked.
“Stop him from opening the book,” the
man said. “Please. If he means anything to you, stop him.”
“Hello. This is Detective Sally Brooks,” and
she rattled off her badge number and address. “I have a man outside my
apartment who is refusing to leave—”
Something heavy struck the door.
Doorjamb timbers splintered. Sally stumbled back, dropped the phone, both hands
on the pistol. She took aim.
The door burst free of the jamb and
struck the wall. A human wind blew through.
Later, Sal remembered slivers: a
stinging blow to her wrist, her gun knocked back against the wall. A woman’s
face—Chinese, she thought. Bob haircut. Her knee slammed into Sal’s solar
plexus and she fell, gasping, to the splinter-strewn carpet. The woman turned,
in slow-motion almost, to the living room where Perry stood.
He held the open book.
His eyes wept tears of blood, and his
smile bared sharp teeth.
He spoke a word that was too big for
her mind. She heard the woman roar, and glass break. Then darkness closed
around her like a mouth.
© 2017 Max Gladstone, with
permission from Saga Press
The critically acclaimed urban fantasy about a secret team of agents that hunts down dangerous books containing deadly magic—previously released serially online by Serial Box, now available in print for the first time!
Magic is real, and hungry. It’s trapped in ancient texts and artifacts, and only a few who discover it survive to fight back. Detective Sal Brooks is a survivor. She joins a Vatican-backed black-ops anti-magic squad—Team Three of the Societas Librorum Occultorum—and together they stand between humanity and the magical apocalypse. Some call them the Bookburners. They don’t like the label.
Supernatural meets The Da Vinci Code in a fast-paced, kickass character driven novel chock-full of magic, mystery, and mayhem, written collaboratively by a team of some of the best writers working in fantasy.
Amazon | Indiebound | B&N
About the Authors:
--Max Gladstone:
MAX GLADSTONE has been thrown from a horse in Mongolia, drank almond milk with monks on Wudang Shan, and wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat. Max is also the author of the Craft Sequence of books about undead gods and skeletal law wizards—Full Fathom Five, Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, and Last First Snow. Max fools everyone by actually writing novels in the coffee shops of Davis Square in Somerville, MA. His dreams are much nicer than you’d expect. He tweets as @maxgladstone. Bookburners, which he wrote with Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery, is available from Saga Press in January.
--Margaret Dunlap:
Before joining the Bookburners, MARGARET DUNLAP wrote for ABC Family’s cult-hit The Middleman in addition to working on SyFy’s Eureka. Most recently, she was a writer and co-executive producer of the Emmy-winning transmedia series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and co-created its sequel Welcome to Sanditon. Her short fiction has previously appeared in Shimmer Magazine. Margaret lives in Los Angeles where she taunts the rest of the team with local weather reports and waits for the earthquake that will finally turn Burbank into oceanfront property. She tweets as @spyscribe. Bookburners, which she wrote with Max Gladstone, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery, is available from Saga Press in January.
--Mur Lafferty:
MUR LAFFERTY is the author of The Shambling Guides series from Orbit, including the Netfix-optioned The Shambling Guide to New York City and Ghost Train to New Orleans. She has been a podcaster for over 10 years, running award-winning shows such as I Should Be Writing and novellas published via podcast. She has written for RPGs, video games, and short animation. She lives in Durham, NC where she attends Durham Bulls baseball games and regularly pets two dogs. Her family regrets her Dragon Age addiction and wishes for her to get help. She tweets as @mightymur. Bookburners, which she wrote with Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, and Brian Francis Slattery, is available from Saga Press in January.
--Brian Francis Slattery:
BRIAN FRANCIS SLATTERY is the author of Spaceman Blues, Liberation, Lost Everything, and The Family Hightower. Lost Everything won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2012. He’s the arts and culture editor for the New Haven Independent, an editor for the New Haven Review, and a freelance editor for a few not-so-secret public policy think tanks. He also plays music constantly with a few different groups in a bunch of different genres. He has settled with his family just outside of New Haven and admits that elevation above sea level was one of the factors he took into account. For one week out of every year, he enjoys living completely without electricity. Bookburners, which he wrote with Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, and Mur Lafferty, is available from Saga Press in January.
Tour Schedule:
