Alex Hern

'Fifteen years ago, the internet felt like a special place my friends and I had built for each other; by 2020, we were standing on its ruins, wondering if we'd played a part in its destruction.'Journalist Marie Le Conte was born in 1991, the same year the World Wide Web was invented. She had her first blog at 12, a successful music website at 15, a Wikipedia page at 17 and now, at 29, over 78,000 followers on Twitter. From MSN, Tumblr and MySpace, to chat rooms, forums and blogs; Marie is part of the millennial generation that grew up while the internet was growing up with them.The generation that entered a new reality.The generation that saw it all.The generation who are now witnessing its collapse.Where did it go all wrong? How did the internet go from a place where you went to escape real life to where real life is shaped? A place where you could be yourself and find like-minded people to a world of filters and ads? A place where everything you post is open to scrutiny? A place we are all now desperately trying to escape from?Escape is a fascinating exploration on the birth and death of the internet. It's a look back on the platforms, the people and the online places. It's an analysis of the lessons being online has taught us, how the internet has changed us - and a celebration of the tools it gives us to feel less alone. The online generation have forever altered the world we live in, but the internet is no longer a place for the people that shaped it.

Harrow the Ninth, an Amazon pick for Best SFF of 2020 and the New York Times and USA Today bestselling sequel to Gideon the Ninth, turns a galaxy inside out as one necromancer struggles to survive the wreckage of herself aboard the Emperor's haunted space station. The Locked Tomb is a 2023 Hugo Award Finalist for Best Series! “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to serve the deathless emperor! Skeletons!” ―Charles Stross on Gideon the Ninth “Unlike anything I've ever read.” ―V.E. Schwab on Gideon the Ninth “Deft, tense and atmospheric, compellingly immersive and wildly original.” ―The New York Times on Gideon the Ninth She answered the Emperor's call. She arrived with her arts, her wits, and her only friend. In victory, her world has turned to ash. After rocking the cosmos with her deathly debut, Tamsyn Muir continues the story of the penumbral Ninth House in Harrow the Ninth, a mind-twisting puzzle box of mystery, murder, magic, and mayhem. Nothing is as it seems in the halls of the Emperor, and the fate of the galaxy rests on one woman's shoulders. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side-by-side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath ― but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her. Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off? THE LOCKED TOMB SERIES BOOK 1: Gideon the Ninth BOOK 2: Harrow the Ninth BOOK 3: Nona the Ninth BOOK 4: Alecto the Ninth