Tangle of Fates — Leslie Ann Moore

""Leslie Ann Moore's "A Tangle of Fates" is an exciting start to a new, lushly written and deeply imagined fantasy trilogy.""

- STEVEN BARNES, author of "Lion's Blood"

""Rich in world-building and lush in its storytelling.""

- GARY PHILLIPS, author of "Black Pulp"

""Moore kicks off this series with a hot blend of future weapons tech, Zorro, and strong female leads. Add in a touch of the mystical...and sit back and enjoy ""

- SHERWOOD SMITH, Nebula award-nominated author of "Inda" and "A Stranger To Command"

""Leslie Ann Moore's A Tangle of Fates presents us with a lushly realized, scientifically plausible universe as marvelous and full of adventure as any high fantasy. While its mix of priestly characters, archaeology, and questions about the cycles of human history are reminiscent of both the Indiana Jones franchise and Walter M. Miller Jr.'s great novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, Moore's Tangle is also something unique and new. Highly recommended.""

- HOWARD HENDRIX, author of "Spears of God" and "The Labyrinth Key"

""A Tangle of Fates mixes planetary romance with a fairy-tale subtext, and serves it up with an intriguing background of reimagined technology and religion. The result is delicious ""

- EMMA BULL, author of "War for the Oaks"

What if Snow White had been a revolutionary... instead of a pawn?

Nuetierra. An alien world where twin moons light the night and massive air-breathing jellyfish float through the violet skies trolling for prey. Where giant creatures roam the ancient ruins of a devastated planet, seeking human blood.

Nue Bayona. A gaslamp, steam-powered city caught between the iron fist of a despot and the bloody fist of a terrorist...

Four hundred years have passed since a great war toppled the fusion-powered civilization created by refugees fleeing a dying planet. Since its fall, Old Earth's descendants have gradually rebuilt a new society on the bones of the old.

Deanna Hernaan, daughter of Eduard, the former Alcalde of Nue Bayona, spends much of her time caring for her troubled sister, Ceilia. Six years ago, her stepmother Lourdessa led a brutal political coup against their father. With the consent of the city's elite, Lourdessa rules through patronage and oppression while Deanna's father languishes in prison.

The common citizens chafe beneath Lourdessa's yoke and yearn for their lost democracy. Many in Nue Bayona support a resistance movement led by the mysterious rebel leader known only as Faustin, despite the man's indiscriminant bloodshed and violent tactics.

Threatened by Deanna's popularity with the common people, Lourdessa jealously arranges for her assassination. But the attempt fails and Deanna escapes from the city. Cast adrift in a hostile wilderness and near death, she is rescued by a band of diminutive hunters, members of a mysterious race she knows only from history books-the Tiqui.

Recovering in their distant village, Deanna meets a remarkable woman-the Tiqui chieftess Yellow Bird. The woman possesses the shamanic gift of foresight. Her visions have revealed that a young woman of the tall folk would one day come, a woman whose fate is inextricably linked to that of the Tiqui.

When Deanna's safe haven is destroyed in a night of horrific violence, she must make a choice: leave the Tiqui for a life of exile, or dare to embrace her destiny by embarking on the road to revolution. Dangerous and uncertain, disaster or salvation waits at its end-for both the Tiqui and tall folk alike.

A Tangle of Fates is the first book in the Vox Machina Trilogy