Murderbot Mugs, Heavenly Tyrants, a Martha Wells Fantasy, and More!

Lan is a songgirl in Haak’gong, scavenging for her past under the rule of the Elantian conquerers. She once had a different name, and a family, and lived under a magic unique to her people; now all she has is a strange mark burned into her arm, her mother’s last act before her death, and no one but Lan can see it. That is, until one night, when a boy shows up at her teahouse and saves her life. His name is Zen, and he’s one of the last practitioners of that now-forbidden magic, and he recognizes Lan for what she is: someone with a hidden and powerful ability that could be the way to overthrow the Elantians and regain the Last Kingdom.

Eight years after the Battle of the Serpent, Lady Nore of the Court of Teeth has taken back the Ice Needle Citadel, and there she creates monsters of snow and wood that will carry out her revenge. The only one who can stop her, Suren the child queen, has fled to the human world where she lives in the woods and releases mortals from foolish bargains they’ve made and believes herself safely forgotten. Then she is saved from a storm hag by the boy she was once betrothed to, and he has a mission for them both — to go north for a reckoning.