Through the Blight (The Autumn Kingdom #1)

Bunn (the Harrow County series) and Mitten (The Alternates) draw readers into an enticing folkloric world in this dark fantasy series opener. Teenage sisters Sommer and Winter travel to Sweden as their father, a fantasy novelist, chases inspiration for his next book. When both their parents are kidnapped by shadowy elven beings, the siblings set out to rescue them and descend into the Autumn Kingdom, a decaying underground fairy realm that requires mortal sacrifices. “The world rots,” a changeling warns them. “Like meat in the sun.” As they push deeper into the underworld, slaying monsters with the help of a conveniently unearthed giant sword, their adventures eerily parallel the plot of their father’s book series about two rival warrior queens known as the Doomed Sisters. Mitten’s artistic background includes stints on Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and B.P.R.D. series, and the influence shows in his daring designs for the Kingdom and its weird inhabitants, which range from a gigantic half-lion, half-millipede to tiny carnivorous pixies. The human characters are just as skillfully rendered. With plenty of mysteries left to explore, readers will be eager to follow Sommer and Winter further into the shadows in future volumes. (Sept.)