Gerd Ruebenstrunk
Laurence Sartin

Arthur and the Emissary of the Shades

Volume 2

Readership level 10 years +
416 p. / with gold foil on the cover and bookmark
21.5 cm x 15.5 cm
ISBN 978-3-7607-5190-0

Welcome to the World of the Forgotten Books!

What starts as a hunt for a missing book, soon turns into the quest to uncover a terrible secret that is older than time itself.

 

Arthur and Larissa discover that they have a special gift. A gift which is only possessed by Keepers, a thousand-year old secret group of men and women dedicated to the protection of the legendary Forgotten Books. Their opponents are the ruthless Seekers and the much more dangerous Shadows.

 

Their journey, which takes them to Amsterdam, Haarlem, Bologna, Córdoba, Cádiz, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, and Sana'a, finally leads Arthur and Larissa to the Nameless City, an evil place deep in the Empty Quarter, where they have to fight the final battle to save Larissa's parents – and the world.

 

Combining Lovecraftian lore with the dark secrets of some of the world's oldest cities, historical research with a number of odd characters, and today's high-tech like the web, Android phones and GPS with the mystery of old books, the Forgotten Books trilogy captures young readers' attention from page one.     

 

With a print run of more than 50.000 hardcover copies within the first year and a lucrative paperback deal, the first volume of the Forgotten Books trilogy was a huge success in Germany. It was praised by critics as "the young reader's Shadow of the Wind", "proof that German authors can write excellent fantasy", "a poetic, ripping adventure yarn" or "a wonderful book with humor, hooks, naturalistic dialogue, and a hint of magic".

 

The second volume was published in June, 2010, with an initial print run of 30.000 hardcover copies.

 

The third volume will be published in January, 2011.

Volume 2: Arthur and the Emissary of the Shades

 

Larissa receives a strange message - are her parents still alive? An eery Shadow Creature promises her the answer to that question if she delivers the Book of Ways to the Shadows, the mysterious inhabitants of the Nameless City.

 

Arthur and Larissa travel to Sevilla, where they are kidnapped by the Seeker Pontus Pluribus. After escaping to Córdoba, they meet the enigmatic Moor who tells them more about the history of the Forgotten Books.

 

Hunted by Pluribus and his henchmen, the Karasamoff quadruplets, they follow the trail of the book to Cádiz and from there, via Marseille, to Dubrovnik.

 

Here they are expected by the jester Pomet whose loyalties are unclear. Breaking into the spooky Meninski house, they are nearly captured again, before they confront the emissary of the Shadows in one of Dubrovnik's old forts.

 

To their surprise, they are saved from Pluribus and the quadruplets by a don of the Croatian mafia who loves books and admires Larissa's programming skills.

 

In his library, they finally discover the Book of Ways.    

Also available:
Arthur and the Forgotten Books (Volume 1)
Arthur and the Nameless City (Volume 3)

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