In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.

When a roamer trades them an ancient book with only a few pages remaining, Lina and Doon return to Ember to seek the machine the book seems to describe in hopes that it will get their new community, Sparks, through the winter.

Astrid is on her way home one day when her neighbor accidentally knocks her off her bike. The next day, she learns that the same neighbor was beaten to death only hours after the accident. Two weeks later there's another brutal murder-- and she realizes there is a killer in the household.

"Amberground is locked in darkness. A man-made star casts only a dim light over the land. The pitch-black wilderness is infested with Gaichuu--colossal insects with metal exoskeletons. The Gaichuu make travel between the cities of Amberground extremely dangerous. But thankfully the Letter Bees, a brave corps of messengers, risk their lives in order to keep the hearts of Amberground connected. Gauche Suede is on his last delivery before a big...

"The Great War is over. The city of Lower Proszawa celebrates the peace with a decadence and carefree spirit as intense as the war's horrifying despair. But this newfound hedonism--drugs and sex and endless parties--distracts from strange realities of everyday life: Intelligent automata taking jobs. Genetically engineered creatures that serve as pets and beasts of war. A theater where gruesome murders happen twice a day. And a new plague that even...

"Zachary Davriel Hillander, High King of Sacoridia, rues how much he has had to give up to lead his realm, including the freedom to live and love as he chooses. When an embassy from Eletia arrives to propose a joint venture between their realms to seek out an old ally in the north, he is dismayed to learn that the one Sacoridian they have in mind to accompany their guide is the woman he truly loves but cannot have: Green Rider Karigan G'ladheon. Karigan...

Los Angeles bike messenger Jace (J.C) Damon, on the run after picking up a package from high-powered attorney Lenny Lowell, who is subsequently murdered. Orphaned Jace lives under society's radar in Chinatown, with his 10-year-old brother, Tyler; his surrogate family includes sassy dispatcher Eta Fitzgerald and the Chen clan, the boy's closet neighbors.

"Zesty Meyers is Boston's fastest bike messenger--caffeine fueled, wise-cracking and reckless--accustomed to hurtling through Boston's kamikaze streets at breakneck speed, always just a bumper or car door away from disaster. Will Meyers is Zesty's father, Beantown's former backroom poker king and political fixer, who is suffering from Alzheimer's and a growing dread that the Big Dig carving its way through some of Boston's toughest neighborhoods will...