Alexis Deacon

"Rat law says that if you're a rat, cheese belongs to you. Got it? Good. However, there are exceptions..."--Jacket flap.

A small creature from space finds no welcome on Earth, until she meets a group of children on a playground.

Ergo, a baby chick waking up inside her egg, ponders her place in the world and what is beyond the walls surrounding her.

"Harry Black, a conscientious objector, artist, and firefighter battling the blazes of German bombing in London in 1944, wakes in the hospital to news that his soldier brother, Ellis, has been killed. In the delirium of his wounded state, Harry's mind begins to blur the distinctions between the reality of war-torn London, the fiction of his unpublished sci-fi novel, and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Driven by visions of Ellis still alive and a...

The Great Chief Matarka has died, and in accordance with her last will and testament, a contest will be held to announce her successor. From all over her realm, figures of great influence--leaders of the military, the church, and industry--have come to participate in the tests that are to be conducted to name the heir to Matarka's chiefdom. And so begins a sprawling, high-stakes adventure. Some of the participants are willing and eager to succeed,...

"As the great chief matriarch lay dying, she gave one final decree: Upon her death there would be a contest. Having no heir of her own blood she called on the gods. Let fate decide the one truly worthy to rule in her place. The rich, the strong, the wise, the powerful; many put forward their names in hope of being chosen. But when the night came--only fifty souls alone were chosen. After surviving two terrible tasks, the remaining chosen are scattered...