A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award–winning and New York Times-bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer.
Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion — a veritable cabinet of curiosities — once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
Swept into encounters with allies more unpredictable than enemies, Jonathan pieces together his destiny as a member of a secret society devoted to keeping our world separate from Aurora. But as the ground shifts and allegiances change with every step, he and his friends sink ever deeper into a deadly pursuit of the profound evil that is also chasing after them.
The series
The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead is a fantastical adventure series by Jeff VanderMeer, beginning with A Peculiar Peril. When Jonathan Lambshead inherits his late grandfather's sprawling mansion, he expects the strange task of sorting through a lifetime's collection of extraordinary objects. Accompanied by two school friends, he begins cataloguing the house's bewildering contents, only to discover that his grandfather's curiosities conceal secrets far stranger than anything he imagined.
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Their discoveries lead toward Aurora, an alternate world where history, mythology, and imagination have taken wildly unexpected turns. Here, bizarre creatures, eccentric inhabitants, and dangerous powers exist alongside mysteries that threaten to reach beyond the boundaries of a single world. What begins as an unusual inheritance becomes a journey into a reality where familiar rules offer little protection.
Blending absurdist humor, surreal invention, and genuine menace, the series explores friendship, courage, and the unsettling possibilities hidden within seemingly ordinary things. Jonathan's adventures unfold in a universe where wonder and horror are never far apart, and where curiosity can open doors that might have been better left closed.
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