Characters from the Epic of Gilgamesh populate this high-stakes contemporary adventure in which all of Manhattan is threatened by the ancient god of plagues.Thirteen-year-old Sik wants a simple life going to school and helping at his parents' deli in the evenings. But all that is blown to smithereens when Nergal comes looking for him, thinking that Sik holds the secret to eternal life.Turns out Sik is immortal but doesn't know it, and that's about to get him and the entire city into deep, deep trouble. Sik's not in this alone. He's got Belet, the adopted daughter of Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, on his side, and a former hero named Gilgamesh, who has taken up gardening in Central Park. Now all they have to do is retrieve the Flower of Immortality to save Manhattan from being wiped out by disease. To succeed, they'll have to conquer sly demons, treacherous gods, and their own darkest nightmares.

    Now he and three friends must embark on an epic quest, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.A new epic fantasy story from the creator of the Dave the Villager series.

    Living in the shadow of his talented cousin, his powerful aunt and uncle, Celes is resigned to his future of soot, factories and well, more soot.But on the night of his twelfth birthday everything changes. A blinding light, a whispered voice and in an instant Celes becomes the first ordinary child in all of history to develop magic, sending him on a fast track ticket to Gardarel, the greatest of the floating cities.Though some welcome Celes others want the dirt-ridden up-start off their city – preferably head first. Nowhere is this clearer than in beautiful and haughty Lady Ban and her sneering nephew Marcus Blackwood. But Blackwood, with his gang of goons and unimaginative one-liners, is soon the least of Celes’s problems.With a little magic and a lot of detective work, Celes unravels the dark truth behind Lady Ban’s prim, perfect smile – an alliance to the villainous Wardens and the masked man who leads them. But in his bid to expose Lady Ban, Celes unwittingly stumbles on to an even darker conspiracy – the complete destruction of Gardarel itself.