An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe's golden age.From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we're told) heralds the dawning of a new world--a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning novelist and historian Ada Palmer. In Inventing the Renaissance, Palmer turns her witty and irreverent eye on the fantasies we've told ourselves about Europe's not-so-golden age, myths she sets right with sharp clarity.Palmer's Renaissance is altogether desperate. Troubled by centuries of conflict, she argues, Europe looked to a long-lost Roman Empire (even its education practices) to save them from unending war. Later historians met their own political challenges with a similarly nostalgic vision, only now they looked to the Renaissance and told a partial story. To right this wrong, Palmer offers fifteen provocative portraits of Renaissance men and women (some famous, some obscure) whose lives reveal a far more diverse, fragile, and wild Renaissance than its glowing reputation suggests.
Ada Palmer Book order (chronological)






The first English translation of this foundational collection of fourth and fifth century texts by the spiritual masters of the Greek Orthodox Christian tradition.
The Perfect Daughter
- 384 pages
- 14 hours of reading
As a child Penny was found abandoned. Grace Francome felt like fate brought Penny to her and her husband Arthur. But as she grew, Penny's actions grew more disturbing, and different "personalities" emerged. Now Penny is in the locked ward of a decaying state psychiatric hospital, charged with the murder of a stranger. Police had her fingerprints on the murder weapon and the victim's blood on her body and clothes. Dr. McHugh helped discover a new personality inside Penny: a young girl named Abigail. Is this the nameless girl who was abandoned in the park years ago? Are the personalities the key to Penny's past and to the murder? Or is she fooling them all - and about to get away with murder?
"When a woman disappears with her two children, one husband will do anything to find them--even confront the secrets of his own past--in D. J. Palmer's My Wife Is Missing, a twisty thriller from the author of The New Husband.."-- Provided by publisher
The New Husband
- 464 pages
- 17 hours of reading
The New Husband is a riveting thriller about the lies we tell ourselves from D. J. Palmer, the author of Saving Meghan. What makes Simon Fitch so perfect? -He knows all her favorite foods, music, and movies. -Her son adores him. He was there when she needed him most. -He anticipates her every need. -He would never betray her like her first husband. The perfect husband. He checks all the boxes. The question is, why? Nina Garrity learned the hard way that her missing husband, Glen, had been leading a double life with another woman. But with Glen gone—presumably drowned while fishing on his boat—she couldn't confront him about the affair or find closure to the life he blew apart. Now, a year and a half later, Nina has found love again and hopes she can put her shattered world back together. Simon, a widower still grieving the death of his first wife, thinks he has found his dream girl in Nina, and his charm and affections help break through to a heart hardened by betrayal. Nina's teenage son, Connor, embraces Simon as the father he wishes his dad could have been, while her friends see a different side to him, and they aren't afraid to use the word obsession. Nina works hard to bridge the divide that’s come between her daughter and Simon. She wants so badly to believe her life is finally getting back on track, but she’ll soon discover that the greatest danger to herself and her children are the lies people tell themselves.
Perhaps the Stars
- 448 pages
- 16 hours of reading
In the final instalment of the Terra Ignota series, the long years of near- utopia have come to an abrupt end...
Seven surrenders : a narrative of events of the year 2454
- 480 pages
- 17 hours of reading
The Year is 2454. The sun is setting on a hard-won golden age. For three centuries, humanity has enjoyed peace and prosperity fuelled by technological abundance, oracular data analytics, careful censorship... and just a little blood. In a world dominated by seven factions, or 'Hives', the price of peace has been a few secret…
Seven Surrenders
- 448 pages
- 16 hours of reading
In a future of near-instantaneous global travel, of abundant provision, a future in which no one living can recall an actual war... a long era of stability threatens to come to an abrupt end.
The year is 2454. Three centuries of peace and a hard-won golden age have come to an abrupt end. The once steadfast leadership of the seven Hives is crumbling, soured by corruption and deception. Savagery and bloodlust, three-centuries suppressed, have been unleashed. The terrible truth is that centuries of peace were bought with a trickle of secret murders. The killings were mathematically planned, meticulously organised to preserve the balance - to ensure no faction could dominate. But now the secret is out, the balance has tipped, the Hives' utopian façade has slipped. Just days ago, humanity stood at the pinnacle of civilization. Now everyone - Hives and Hiveless, Utopians and sensayers, emperors and convicts, warriors and saints - is preparing for war.
Shortlisted for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. The year is 2454. Humanity has engineered a hard-won golden age, forged in the aftermath of a bitter conflict that wiped both religion and nation state from the planet. Now seven factions or 'hives' co-govern the world, their rule fuelled by benign censorship, oracular statistical analytics and technological abundance. But this is a fragile Utopia - and someone is intent on pushing it to breaking point. Convicted for his crimes, celebrated for his talents, Mycroft Canner is the indentured instrument - and confidant - of some of the world's most powerful figures. When he is asked to investigate a bizarre theft, he finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy that could shatter the tranquil world order the Hives have maintained for three centuries. But Mycroft has his own secrets. He is concealing a much greater threat to the seven Hives, a wild card no degree of statistical analysis could have prophesised. This threat takes the unlikely form of a thirteen-year-old called Bridger. For how will a world that has banished God deal with a child who can perform miracles?

