The Hidden Cities
Written by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon

Every big city has a soul, and every soul has a dark, secret side. The Hidden Cities books are set in places we all know very well - places which hold secrets almost beyond belief.

Mind the Gap: A Novel of The Hidden Cities

You never know when you'll find yourself
falling through one of the cracks in the world...

Two of today's brightest stars of dark fantasy combine their award-winning, critically acclaimed talents in this spellbinding new tale of magic, terror, and adventure that begins when a young woman slips through the space between our everyday world and the one hiding just beneath it.

Always assume there's someone after you. That was the paranoid wisdom her mother had hardwired into Jasmine Towne ever since she was a little girl. Now, suddenly on her own, Jazz is going to need every skill she has ever been taught to survive enemies both seen and unseen. For her mother had given Jazz one last invaluable piece of advice, written in her own blood.

Jazz Hide Forever

All her life Jazz has known them only as the "Uncles," and her mother seemed to fear them as much as depend on them. Now these enigmatic, black-clad strangers are after Jazz for reasons she can't fathom, and her only escape is to slip into the forgotten tunnels of London's vast underground. Here she will meet a tribe of survivors calling themselves the United Kingdom and begin an adventure that links her to the ghosts of a city long past, a father she never knew, and a destiny she fears only slightly less than the relentless killers who'd commit any crime under heaven or earth to prevent her from fulfilling it.

Additional Details
Published by Spectra
400 pages
May 20th, 2008
ISBN-10: 0553384694
ISBN-13: 978-0553384697

Read an excerpt from Mind the Gap.

Download the Bantam podcast with Christopher Golden

The Map of Moments: A Novel of the Hidden Cities

What if you were given a map to a magic that could change the worst moment of your life . . . for a price?

From two all-stars of dark fantasy, Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, coauthors of Mind the Gap, comes this terrifying new thriller of magic and dangerous passions, where an ordinary man searches the magical landscape of an extraordinary city for the chance of a lifetime.

Barely six months after leaving New Orleans, history professor Max Corbett is returning to a place he hardly recognizes. The girl he'd loved - and lost - is dead, and the once-enchanted city has been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Max has not thought much beyond Gabrielle's funeral - until a strange old man offers him a map, and an insane proposition . . .

"Forget all the stories about magic you think you know..."

It looks like an ordinary tourist map, but the old man claims that it is marked with a trail of magical moments from New Orleans's history that just might open a door to the past. But it is a journey fraught with peril as Max begins to uncover dark secrets about both his dead love and the city he never really got to know. How is Gabrielle linked to an evil group from the city's past? And can Max evade them long enough to turn back the clock and give Gabrielle one last chance at life?

Additional Details
Published by Spectra
400 pages
January 27th, 2009
ISBN-10: 0553384708
ISBN-13: 978-0553384703

Reviews

"A pitch-perfect blend of fantasy and realism. Golden and Lebbon craft a riveting tale of adventure that is both gritty and magical."
- Kelley Armstrong, author of Personal Demon

"[Mind the Gap] is an enjoyable, engrossing read that delivers plenty of thrills."
- Green Man Reviews

"The Map of Moments is steeped in sex and death, a whirlwind ride through centuries of secret history marked by murder, cannibalism, and lust. It's as much a love letter to [New Orleans] and its people as it is a lamentation for what has been, perhaps irrevocably, lost. The New Orleans depicted here isn't a candy-colored tourist paradise or a twee goth playground, but rather an ancient, haunted city. Marked by tragedy and bounded by darkness, it still strives for the light, even as deadly magical war is waged in its stately homes and cobblestoned streets. The Map of Moments is not an easy, comforting read, but it is an alluring, engrossing one, and a wiser, truer book than something simpler could have been."
- Richard Dansky, Green Man Reviews

"Golden and Lebbon do a wonderful job with this book, pulling you in with a strong opening and a likable protagonist in Jazz, and then maintaining the story with an array of mysteries and puzzles, and a cast of engaging characters."
- Charles de Lint, Fantasy & Science Fiction

"Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and the classic Dickens' Oliver Twist, this book gives the dark fantasy genre a gothic twist."
- Parkersburg News and Sentinel

"Urban realism meets dark fantasy in this spine-tingling second collaboration between Golden and Lebbon as they merge the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina with New Orleans' terrifying ghostly past. Golden and Lebbon have far outstripped their past efforts with this wonderfully creepy thriller of a ghost story."
-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"A dark, gripping story set in a shattered but unbeaten New Orleans. A fascinating look at a city that's not all jazz and beads. Part ghost story, part thriller, it doesn't pull any punches along the way, putting the hero through a physical, mental and spiritual ordeal even as it paints an honest, stark picture of a city just starting to recover from a near-fatal blow. The Map of Moments isn't about New Orleans as it's traditionally depicted; there's no Mardi Gras excess, no jazz on the street corners, no partying in the French Quarter. This is about the undying, unbroken spirit of the city, that stubborn, iron core remaining after everything else has been stripped away. It's about survivors, those who've been transformed by what they've done to stay safe and alive, and those who understand pain and loss. It's a ghost story, where memories of the city as it was haunt the city as it is, with one poor accidental hero caught right in the middle. It's a love story, the kind that always ends with a broken heart.

"Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon really deliver a hell of a harrowing tale here. It's dark and intense, full of pain and anguish, and the New Orleans that acts as the backdrop here is one a lot of people undoubtedly aren't familiar with, and yet, this New Orleans is just as real and vital as the image presented to the tourists. They do an excellent job of making the city itself the true protagonist, even as they infuse the setting with tragic ghost stories and other shadowy aspects of a hidden, magical past. There's a lot to think about here; it's not your average urban fantasy by any means. It's a great read, illuminating a time and place in American history that should not be ignored or forgotten."
-- sfsite.com

Visit The Hidden Cities website at http://www.thehiddencities.com