Paul Stewart

Thirteen-year-old Twig, having always looked and felt different from his woodtroll family, learns that he is adopted and travels out of his Deepwoods home to find the place where he belongs.

Nate Quarter, a lowly lamplighter in the phraxmines of the Eastern Woods, must flee for his life when the mine sargeant wants him killed, while elsewhere, a storm unlike any ever seen is building.

In his continuing adventures, Twig, now sixteen years old, joins the crew of his father's sky pirate ship and embarks on a dangerous mission to collect the powerful stromphrax, a substance that purifies water and also prevents the city of Sanctaphrax from floating away.

Rook Barkwater, one of the apprentices chosen to make a dangerous journey to study in the Deepwoods, joins the sky pirate Captain Twig in opposing the Guardians of the Night and learns more about his own past.

Apprenticed to the Most High Academe of Sanctaphrax, a floating city of scholars, gossip, and treachery, fourteen-year-old Quint runs increasingly dangerous errands, which eventually bring him to a place of gruesome monsters that threaten his life and those of his friends.

Nine-year-old Fergus Crane's life is filled with classes on the school ship Betty Jeanne, interesting neighbors, and helping with his mother's work until a mysterious box flies into his window and leads him toward adventure.