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A centuries-long peace is shattered in a matriarchal society when a decade passes without a single girl being born in this sweeping epic fantasy that's perfect for fans of Robin Hobb and Circe.
Five hundred years of peace between queendoms shatters when girls inexplicably stop being born. As the Drought of Girls stretches across a generation, it sets off a cascade of political and personal consequences across all five queendoms of the known world, throwing long-standing alliances into disarray as each queendom begins to turn on each other—and new threats to each nation rise from within.
Uniting the stories of women from across the queendoms, this propulsive, gripping epic fantasy follows a warrior queen who must rise from childbirth bed to fight for her life and her throne, a healer in hiding desperate to protect the secret of her daughter's explosive power, a queen whose desperation to retain control leads her to risk using the darkest magic, a near-immortal sorcerer demigod powerful enough to remake the world for her own ends—and the generation of lastborn girls, the ones born just before the Drought, who must bear the hopes and traditions of their nations if the queendoms are to survive.
"Five nations ruled by women are sent into free fall when, for decades, only boys are born in this novel of magic, might, and intrigue...Although Macallister's final cliffhanger may feel unsatisfying to those who want tidy answers to their burning questions, the promise of a continuing story will be enough for many fantasy fans. A bold setup for a blood-bathed new series of epic fantasy." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] refreshing epic fantasy...Macallister twines the stories of women from each of these societies as they struggle with loss and search for solutions. She does a good job keeping each perspective as exciting as the last. The page-turning plot and intricate worldbuilding makes this a must-read for fans of Game of Thrones and Priory of the Orange Tree." - Publishers Weekly
"An intoxicating brew of court politics, deadly magic, family rivalry, and enough swashbuckling female swordplay to delight Wonder Woman's entire isle of Amazons. Macallister's turn from historical fiction to historical fantasy is a gem—I can't wait for the next installment!" - Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice Network
"Ambitious and engaging...A sprawling epic fantasy that spans the lives of warriors, queens and the fate of a continent." - Rebecca Roanhorse, New York Times bestselling author of Black Sun
This information about Scorpica was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her debut novel The Magician's Lie was a USA Today bestseller, an Indie Next pick, and a Target Book Club selection. Her novels Girl in Disguise ("a rip-roaring, fast-paced treat to read" - Booklist) and Woman 99 ("a nail biter that makes you want to stand up and cheer" - Kate Quinn) were inspired by pioneering 19th-century private detective Kate Warne and fearless journalist Nellie Bly, respectively. Her book The Arctic Fury was named an Indie Next and Library Reads pick, an Amazon Best Book of the Month, and a spotlighted new release at PopSugar, Libro.fm, and Goodreads. Scorpica was her epic fantasy debut. A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she ...
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Link to G.R. Macallister's Website
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