Now nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel of
2011."

Come inside and take a seat; the show is about to begin...

Outside any city still standing, the Mechanical Circus Tresaulti sets up
its tents. Crowds pack the benches to gawk at the brass-and-copper troupe and
their impossible feats: Ayar the Strong Man, the acrobatic Grimaldi Brothers,
fearless Elena and her aerialists who perform on living trapezes. War is
everywhere, but while the Circus is performing, the world is magic.

That magic is no accident: Boss builds her circus from the bones out,
molding a mechanical company that will survive the unforgiving
landscape.

But even a careful ringmaster can make mistakes.

Two of Tresaulti's performers are entangled in a secret standoff that
threatens to tear the circus apart just as the war lands on their doorstep. Now
the Circus must fight a war on two fronts: one from the outside, and a more
dangerous one from within.