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Her powers could save the kingdom - or burn it to the ground 1830. Wars on the Continent have left the British empire broken and bleeding; London is a smoking ruin, and Oxford is the new capital. The flames of the Industrial Revolution have destroyed the forests, driving magical beings into the light. The King lies dying or is already dead - no one knows for sure. And in the gutters, beggars whisper of the red star that hangs over the rooftops; crazed cults preach the end of days. It wasn''t the university experience Aria Shaw was expecting when she came to Oxford to study magic under the famed Professor Ashcroft. Insatiably curious, eager to learn how to control her formidable powers, Aria''s hunger for knowledge verges on recklessness. Ashcroft - brilliant, mysterious, haunted by the ghosts of war - knows he can bring the best out of his gifted young pupil... if he can manage to keep her alive. When a series of lethal attacks slash through the city, the fragile peace between the English monarchy and the faerie courts is threatened, and Aria and Ashcroft find themselves in the middle of a treacherous plot. Someone is trying to destabilise the kingdom and undo the victory against Napoleon and his dark magic. And somehow, Aria is at the centre of it all. Starfall is the first book in The Oxford Book of Magick trilogy - a deliciously atmospheric historical fantasy for fans of V.E. Schwab''s A Darker Shade of Magic, Babel , Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell , and Philip Pullman''s Oxford.
About the author
Jamie Cass currently teaches history in a secondary school outside of Oxford. Before that, he worked as a bookseller in Waterstones, living out of the fantasy and science-fiction section. Growing up, he spent far too much of his time daydreaming about dragons when he should have been working. A self-professed nerd and lover of the outdoors, he can usually be found in a field reading books he has already read and picturing how A Song of Ice and Fire will end. He wrote Starfall because he got tired of the everyday and wanted to escape somewhere magical.
