{"title":"Books by Ada Palmer","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781786699541","title":"Seven Surrenders","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe year is 2454. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe sun is setting on a \u003cb\u003ehard-won golden age\u003c\/b\u003e. For three centuries, humanity has enjoyed \u003cb\u003epeace and prosperity\u003c\/b\u003e fuelled by technological abundance, oracular data analytics, careful censorship... and \u003cb\u003ejust a little blood.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a world \u003cb\u003edominated\u003c\/b\u003e by seven factions, or 'Hives', the price of peace has been a few \u003cb\u003esecret murders\u003c\/b\u003e, mathematically planned to ensure \u003cb\u003epolitical and economic balance\u003c\/b\u003e. But now the secret is out, the balance is slipping and \u003cb\u003ewar\u003c\/b\u003e beckons. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConvict Mycroft Canner knew this \u003cb\u003ewar was coming\u003c\/b\u003e – he committed his terrible crimes to forestall it. Now, he has just one card left, a \u003cb\u003ewild card\u003c\/b\u003e no degree of statistical genius could have predicted: a thirteen-year-old child with the power to work miracles. Turning thought into matter, matter in life, \u003cb\u003ethis child has the power to save the world, or to doom it\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205055250610,"sku":"9781786699541","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786699541.jpg?v=1786025787"},{"product_id":"9781786699626","title":"Perhaps the Stars","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe final instalment in Ada Palmer's award-winning, critically acclaimed Terra Ignota series. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor years, the leaders of the Hive clandestinely committed terrible deeds in order to maintain an outward semblance of utopian stability. But the facade could last only so long. Global travel and worldwide abundance may have tempered humanity's darkest inclinations, but conflict remains deeply rooted in the human psyche. A catalyst – in the form of a special little boy – was all it took to ignite half a millennium of repressed chaos.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow war spreads across the globe, splintering old alliances and awakening sleeping enmities. All transportation systems are in danger, fracturing a long-united world and threatening to obliterate everything the Hive system built.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith Mycroft Canner nowhere to be found, his successor must attempt to restore order in a world spiralling ever closer to irreparable ruin. But is the key to salvation to remain Earth-bound or, perhaps, to aim for the stars?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Incredibly ambitious and groundbreaking... Palmer writes gloriously lush prose stuffed with asides, allusions and nods to the reader' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205055283378,"sku":"9781786699626","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786699626_3d83a739-c309-494a-87c0-62a627bdf794.jpg?v=1786025790"},{"product_id":"9781786699503","title":"Too Like the Lightning","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe year is 2454.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHumanity has engineered a hard-won \u003cb\u003egolden age\u003c\/b\u003e, forged in the aftermath of a bitter conflict that wiped both religion and nation state from the planet. Now seven factions or 'hives' co-govern the world, their rule fuelled by benign censorship, oracular statistical analytics and technological abundance. But this is a fragile Utopia – and someone is \u003cb\u003eintent on pushing it to breaking point.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConvicted for his \u003cb\u003ecrimes\u003c\/b\u003e, celebrated for his talents, Mycroft Canner is the indentured instrument – and confidant – of some of the world's \u003cb\u003emost powerful figures\u003c\/b\u003e. When he is asked to investigate a bizarre theft, he finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy that could shatter the tranquil world order the Hives have maintained for three centuries. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Mycroft has his \u003cb\u003eown secrets\u003c\/b\u003e. He is concealing a much greater threat to the seven Hives, a \u003cb\u003ewild card\u003c\/b\u003e no degree of statistical analysis could have prophesied. This threat takes the unlikely form of a \u003cb\u003ethirteen-year-old\u003c\/b\u003e called Bridger. \u003cb\u003eFor how will a world that has banished God deal with a child who can perform miracles?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206237454514,"sku":"9781786699503","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786699503.jpg?v=1786025786"},{"product_id":"9781786699589","title":"The Will to Battle","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe year is \u003cb\u003e2454\u003c\/b\u003e. Three centuries of peace and a hard-won golden age have come to an \u003cb\u003eabrupt end\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe once steadfast leadership of the seven Hives is crumbling, soured by \u003cb\u003ecorruption and deception\u003c\/b\u003e. Savagery and bloodlust, three-centuries suppressed, have been unleashed. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe \u003cb\u003eterrible truth\u003c\/b\u003e is that centuries of peace were bought with a trickle of secret murders. The killings were mathematically planned, meticulously organised to preserve the balance – to ensure no faction could dominate. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut now the \u003cb\u003esecret is out\u003c\/b\u003e, the balance has tipped, the Hives' utopian façade has slipped. Just days ago, humanity stood at the pinnacle of civilization. Now everyone – Hives and Hiveless, Utopians and sensayers, emperors and convicts, warriors and saints – is \u003cb\u003epreparing for war\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206237487282,"sku":"9781786699589","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786699589_a0b73521-ae89-4f07-9b0f-704b0c1961fc.jpg?v=1786025788"},{"product_id":"9781035910137","title":"Inventing the Renaissance","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of modernity, it has come to symbolise the transformative rebirth of knowledge, art, culture and political thought in Europe. And for the last two hundred years, historians have struggled to describe what makes this famous golden age unique.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eInventing the Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e, acclaimed historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on what makes this epoch so captivating. Her witty and irreverent journey through the fantasies historians have constructed about the period show how its legend derives more from later centuries’ mythmaking than from the often grim reality of the period itself. She examines its defining figures and movements: the enduring legacy of Niccolò Machiavelli, the rediscovery of the classics, the rise of the Medici and fall of the Borgias, the astonishing artistic achievements of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Cellini, the impact of the Inquisition and the expansion of secular Humanism. Palmer also explores the ties between culture and money: books, for example, could cost as much as grand houses, so the period’s innovative thinkers could only thrive with the help of the super-rich. She offers fifteen provocative and entertaining character portraits of Renaissance men and women, some famous, some obscure, whose intersecting lives show how the real Renaissance was more unexpected, more international and, above all, more desperate than its golden reputation suggests.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on her popular blogs and writing with her characteristic energy and wit, Palmer presents the Renaissance as we have never seen it before. Colloquial, funny and brilliant, you would never expect a work of deep scholarship to make you alternately laugh and cry.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368490348917,"sku":"9781035910137","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781035910137_81c13edd-09c8-41ad-ad3b-3210c6e27de2.jpg?v=1786017338"},{"product_id":"and-loki-in-his-prison","title":"And Loki in His Prison","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn a world where the Viking gods are real, and \u003ci\u003eonly \u003c\/i\u003ethe Viking gods are real, why did belief in the old Norse mythology die out? \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this epic and intellectually provocative historical fantasy, award-winning SF author and leading historian, Ada Palmer, explores the real relationship between Odin, ruler of Asgard, and Loki, the sworn enemy of the gods and escaped murderer of Odin’s son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo far, so Viking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut amid the familiar cast of gods, monsters, and heroes, the search for Loki leads his pursuers — Tyr, the war god, and Ossur, the last surviving Viking from a dying settlement — across the cosmos and throughout time, from opening night at Shakespeare’s Henry V to the Roman Empire, Mulan and Joan of Arc.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy drinking from Mimir’s Well of Wisdom, the two gain access to an interwoven tree of out-of-order memories which they use to track Loki, from the first trace spotted at that opening night at the Globe, through events both after and long before. What follows is a vibrant and perilous quest to piece together the truth about Loki’s whereabouts and his murder of Baldur…\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682824986997,"sku":"9781035919949","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57593957253493,"sku":"9781035919925","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"and-loki-in-his-prison-2","title":"And Loki in His Prison","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn a world where the Viking gods are real, and \u003ci\u003eonly \u003c\/i\u003ethe Viking gods are real, why did belief in the old Norse mythology die out? \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this epic and intellectually provocative historical fantasy, award-winning SF author and leading historian, Ada Palmer, explores the real relationship between Odin, ruler of Asgard, and Loki, the sworn enemy of the gods and escaped murderer of Odin’s son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo far, so Viking.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut amid the familiar cast of gods, monsters, and heroes, the search for Loki leads his pursuers — Tyr, the war god, and Ossur, the last surviving Viking from a dying settlement — across the cosmos and throughout time, from opening night at Shakespeare’s Henry V to the Roman Empire, Mulan and Joan of Arc.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy drinking from Mimir’s Well of Wisdom, the two gain access to an interwoven tree of out-of-order memories which they use to track Loki, from the first trace spotted at that opening night at the Globe, through events both after and long before. What follows is a vibrant and perilous quest to piece together the truth about Loki’s whereabouts and his murder of Baldur…\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57593957548405,"sku":"9781035932795","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ada-palmer.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}