Colonial Fantasies

1882. North of Edinburgh, on the edge of an isolated loch, lies an institution of crumbling stone, where a strange doctor collects orphans with unusual abilities. In London, two children with such powers are hunted by a figure of darkness—a man made of smoke.

Sarah Calhoun is the 15-year-old daughter of the Elector Andrew Calhoun, one of Appalachee's military heroes and one of the electors who gets to decide who will next ascend as the Emperor of the New World. None of that matters to Sarah. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants is to be left alone - especially by outsiders.

The Colonial Scouts are an elite group of explorers who seek out habitable planets for the Colonial Expansion Board. They travel through space via programmable wormholes. Natica is drowning in siblings. She hopes that if she becomes a Scout, she will rise above her brothers and sisters and shine. But when a man dies because of her mistake, she leaves the program and returns home a failure.

The mad goblin scholar Bugbear and his gambler cousin Tudmire come into possession of a most peculiar scroll. It is through this scroll that the mystical world of Annwfn and the world of 19th-century humanity are suddenly and inadvertently thrust together. Allying themselves with the awkward human stage magician Martin Manchester and the fierce warrior woman Maga, Bugbear and Tudmire must rally the frightened folk of the small town of Willow Prairie against the gathering evil.