The Bone Raiders

In the Rakada series launch, Ford (the Frost Files series) crafts a gritty yet buoyant saga of raiders trading their horses for dragons. The Rakada, also called the Bone Raiders due to their skeletal armor, are fighting against the consolidation of their hunting grounds, known as the Tapestry, by the Khan of Karkorum. When their raid on a village is crashed by a giant fire-breathing lizard, Sayana, the Rakada Princess, gets swept up onto its back and clings on for dear life—before realizing the beast is rideable as a horse. This sparks an idea: if her people can harness the monsters as mounts, surely they can beat the Khan. Failing to convince the other Rakada of the wisdom of this plan, she decides to kidnap a beast trainer out of Karkorum, right under the nose of the trainer’s sister, who is the Khan’s Right Hand. Amid the relentless action, Ford draws from Mongol history to fully develop his Rakada protagonists, showing their moral quandaries and ethical uneasiness. This is a promising start. Agent: Ed Wilson, Johnson & Alcock Literary. (Aug.)