The Cinder Spires

Jim Butcher

In a world of towering Spires, where noble families wield steam-powered technology and ancient magic, Captain Grimm commands the merchant airship Predator. Loyal to Spire Albion, he navigates a tense cold war, disrupting enemy shipping lines. When his ship is damaged, Grimm accepts a perilous mission for the Albion agents, a task that thrusts him into a conflict far greater than he imagined. As humanity's ancient enemy awakens after millennia of silence, Grimm and his crew must confront a threat that could spell the end of their civilization.

Jim Butcher

As tensions between the rival spires of Albion and Aurora threaten to erupt into war, Captain Francis Grimm and the crew of the Predator are drawn into a dangerous mission amid vanished colonies, secretive powers, and an increasingly unstable political landscape. While Grimm travels toward Spire Olympia for a crucial trade summit, Bridget Tagwynn and Benedict of House Lancaster undertake an unusual diplomatic assignment involving a clan of intelligent, talking cats. Airship battles, magical technology, high-stakes negotiations, and shifting alliances propel this fast-paced fantasy adventure through a world suspended above a deadly mist. Blending space-opera scale with steampunk-inspired worldbuilding, the story explores loyalty, diplomacy, political ambition, and the fragile alliances that stand between civilization and catastrophe.