When a scrappy alley cat named Aldwyn passes himself off as a magical animal companion to Jack, a young wizard in training, Aldwyn and his fellow "familiars, " a know-it-all blue jay and bumbling tree frog, must save the kingdom after the evil queen of Vastia kidnaps Jack and two other wizards.

With Vastia under attack from Paksahara's zombie army, the familiars Aldwyn the cat, Skylar the blue jay, and Gilbert the tree frog must gather seven descendants from the most ancient and powerful animals in the queendom to bring Paksahara down.

From the universally acclaimed, genre-busting author of House of Leaves comes a new book as dazzling as it is riveting . . . A page-turner from start to finish, ranging from Southeast Asia to Mexico to Venice, Italy, and Venice, California, with characters as diverse as a therapist-in-training whose daughters prove far more complex than her patients, an ambitious East-L.A. gang member hired for violence, two scientists on the run in Marfa, Texas,...

"Todos parecian divertirse en aquel baile que reunia a lo mas selecto de la sociedad londinense. Todos, excepto ellos dos. Daphne, una hermosa joven agobiada por su madre, y Simon, el hurano nuevo duque de Hastings, tenian el mismo problema: la continua presion para que encontraran pareja. Al conocerse, se les ocurrio el plan perfecto: fingir un compromiso que los liberara de mas agobios. Pero no seria sencillo, ya que el hermano de Daphne, amigo...