The City of Oxford, the future… For centuries, the world has been ruled by magicians. The invention of the magic particle solved the environmental problems of the Electric Age, but now that resource is fast running out.
Soon there will be no more magic.
When a dragon belonging to dangerous nobleman, Lord Druze, sets fire to his student rooms in Oxford, college servant Marah is not only injured but unfairly blamed and forced out of her job and her lodgings. With her estranged father having disappeared while overseas, Marah sees no other option than to join Druze’s expedition to the Aegean, whereby he intends to find the means to reverse magic’s decline. According to him, the solution may lie on the volcanic island home of the dragons. He gathers allies: a shy scholar, a drunken mermaid diver, a taciturn sword master, a crew of pirates, and an irrepressible princess. However, the voyage will be anything but plain sailing as their enemies in the anti-magic faction, the Lamplighters, will do anything to stop them finding the answers they seek.
The journey will change and challenge them all, not least Marah, who discovers that the connection between dragons and magic has bigger personal consequences for her than anyone could possibly have imagined as the injuries she sustained in the fire begin to tip her inexorably from young woman to dragon-winged hybrid…
Julia Golding is the award-winning author of over fifty books for children, young adults and adults. She worked as a British diplomat before obtaining a doctorate from Oxford University and deciding to write full-time. Her titles include the award-winning Cat Royal series, beginning with The Diamond of Drury Lane and, most recently, The Tigers in the Tower. An avid Jane Austen fan, Golding’s Jane Austen-themed podcast ‘What Would Jane Do?’ offers a 19th century take on modern life.
Extent: 516 pages
UK Publisher: KDP, February 2025
Primary Agent: Caroline Walsh
Film/ TV agent: DHA (Clare Israel)
Co-agents: Chinese Bardon Chinese Media; Japanese Japan Uni
Rights sold: All rights available