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Stealing From Wizards Vol. IV: Arson book tour includes an excerpt. Explore, enter, share, comment, follow.
Book Details
Stealing from Wizards
JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy / General
Date Published: 11-04-2025
In Stealing from Wizards Vol. IV: Arson, Kuro (a ½ lutin, ½ wizard teenager) remains at Avalon Academy for more magical mayhem, reluctant heroism, and poorly-timed duels. Trapped on the Academy’s island for a summer of make-up classes, he stumbles into a dangerous mystery that could reshape the world. Between dodging dragons, unraveling conspiracies, and baking cookies for creatures, Kuro must confront who he is—and who he wants to be. As the new school year begins, old enemies rise and magical chaos spreads, Kuro’s past and future collide in a final adventure that’s as heartwarming as it is exciting.
Author Details
Aside from writing, Ryan Consell is a teacher of science and mathematics, stage actor, armorer, and nerd culture activist. His work has been featured on io9, Kotaku, Boingboing, MTV Geek, madartlab.com and in Game Developer Magazine. He is an internationally acclaimed theorist on the science of fiction. He has consulted on such titles as “The Science of Game of Thrones,” spoken at events including DragonCon and Convergence, and partnered with the American Chemical Society. He employs his background in materials science and engineering to overthink fictional physics and to make science more accessible to the public. Ryan was born and raised near Toronto. He has lived and worked in Tokyo and Vancouver, but currently calls Ontario home.
Contact Links
Website: https://stealingfromwizards.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6430318.R_A_Consell
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studentofwhim/?hl=en
Purchase Link
Amazon: https://amzn.to/4oV25fw
Long setting and MC perspective
Avalon was wonderful with nobody else on it.
During the school year, Kuro had thoroughly explored the places other people avoided. He
had favourite elephant ferns to climb on in the Spring Quarter, on which he could lounge while
electric newts hunted minnows in the swamp below. There were ledges on the Summer cliffs
where he could sit and watch the veil dance on the waves, just barely out of arm’s reach. When
he needed complete peace, the Winter Quarter had forests of spruce trees eternally caked in
snow, which soaked up all the sound and left him alone with his thoughts. And, of course, there
was his home in Autumn, where the rustling leaves and musty scents of gentle decay hugged
him like a cozy blanket.
With everyone gone, though, he could explore the places people didn’t avoid.
It was forbidden to enter another residence without invitation and escort. That was quite
reasonable for reasons of privacy and theft prevention, though a bit onerous for someone who
had never paid much attention to either. With the residents gone, there was no such prohibition,
at the very least not one that had been passed along to Kuro.
He considered, as he wandered the empty halls and developed opinions on the relative
comfort of his fellow students’ mattresses, that folk rarely made rules against things that had
never happened. In an effort to keep anyone from considering the need to invent a new policy,
he ensured he left no trace of his passing. He smoothed sheets, swept floors, and relocked
doors behind him.
Summerhill Residence, home to the students of the southern kingdom of Tirnanog, had too
much of everything: the wallpaper, too much pattern; the floors, too much wax; the cushions, too
much stuffing; the curtains, too much fabric. The rooms, despite being twice the size of the ones
in Autumn Lodge, felt smaller due to the clutter of cabinets, chairs, lamps, shelves, and desks.
While Summerhill might have been slightly claustrophobic, it was at least a place clearly
meant to be lived in. The residence for the children from Acadia in the east, Le Chateau du
Printemps, felt more like a work of art than a home for students. Soaring marble architecture,
stained-glass windows, crystal chandeliers, and gilded wainscotting screamed “do not touch.”
Their beds, though, were much more welcoming than those of their Summer counterparts.
The Summerhill beds were barely softer than the parquet flooring on which they sat, acting as
anvils on which to hammer out the appropriately stiff posture of a respectable citizen of
Tirnanog. The mattresses of Spring were like oversized marshmallows. One could sink so
deeply into their downy softness as to require rescue.
Vertheim was altogether different. Folk from Alfheim, in the North, in the snow, put a lot less
stock in privacy. There was warmth and light in community, something their long dark winters
otherwise lacked. They ate and slept all together in a single massive hall, nestled in furs around
long firepits, whose ever-burning embers fought away the relentless cold of their quarter. Even
their baths were communal, huge stone pools filled and heated by underground springs.
While Kuro could not comment on the communal experience, he could confirm that floating
in the mineral-rich waters, breathing the heady steam, could soak away even the deepest chill.
None could compare, however, to Autumn Lodge.
The other residences would have been offended by even attempting such a comparison.
The beds were lumpy, the windows drafty, the floors creaky. Even so, despite having free rein to
claim any spot on the whole island to lay his head, Kuro found himself returning again and again
to his squat log cabin half buried in fallen leaves.
It was home.
Tour Schedule
November 2 – RABT Book Tours – Kick Off
November 2 – Always Reading – Excerpt
November 3 – Ella English – Spotlight
November 3 – Texas Book Nook – Review
November 4 – Books 1987 – Spotlight
November 4 – Chapter Break – Guest Post
November 5 – Novel News Network – Review
November 5 – Sarandipity’s – Excerpt
November 6 – Liliyana Shadowlyn – Spotlight
November 6 – The Avid Reader – Interview
November 7 – The Indie Express – Review
November 7 – Wine Cellar Library – Excerpt
November 8 – The Faerie Review – Spotlight
November 8 – RABT Reviews – Wrap Up
