Red City
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Godfather meets The Magicians in the sweeping adult debut from No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu. Perfect for fans of V. E. Schwab, Red City is a dark and deadly contemporary fantasy of magical warfare, star-crossed ambition and the pursuit of perfection at any cost, set in a glittering alternate Los Angeles.
Alchemy is the hidden art of transformation, an exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates who market it to the world’s elite in the form of sand – a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more.
Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor’s edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city – and the paths of their lives – will be irrevocably transformed.
The daughter of a poor single mother, Sam would do anything to claw her way into the ranks of Grand Central in search of a better life. Plucked away from his family as a boy to become a Lumines apprentice, Ari is one of the syndicates’ brightest rising stars. Once, they might have loved each other. But as the two alchemists face off from opposite sides of an ever-escalating conflict, ambition becomes power, loyalty becomes lies, and no transformation may be perfect enough for them both to survive the coming war.
Praise for Marie Lu
‘Marie Lu always delivers’
– Leigh Bardugo, author of Ninth House and Six of Crows
‘Marie Lu is magic’
– Tahereh Mafi, author of Shatter Me
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Magic and machinations abound in bestselling YA author Lu's vibrant adult debut (after Icon and Inferno), the first in her New Alchemists series. In the 1980s, a pair of alchemists succeeded in creating the Philosopher's Stone and distilled it into a powerful drug called sand, which "enhances everything about who you are." The use of this performance-enhancing drug underpinned the creative tech boom of the decades that followed and led to the development of fabulously wealthy, fiercely competitive, often criminal, and deeply secretive alchemical guilds. In present-day Angel City, two childhood friends keep parallel secrets: Ari was recruited away from his family in India to train with the powerful Lumines syndicate as a master of charisma; Sam's search for a solution to her single mom's financial desperation led her to discover an aptitude for transformations and become a star student within rival syndicate Grand Central. Lu puts these two on a collision course as they both rise in the ranks of their respective organizations, whose violence against each other simultaneously ramps up. Lu builds a rich alternate present that pulls tropes from both magic school and crime drama literary traditions to tell an addictive double "chosen one" story that successfully keeps readers' sympathies divided. It's truly enthralling.
