The Devil's Engine: Hellraisers: (Book 1) (The Devil's Engine, 1) - Hardcover

Smith, Alexander Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374301697 ISBN 13: 9780374301699

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2015

Synopsis

From the author of the Escape from Furnace series, The Devil's Engine: Hellraisers is the opening salvo in an explosive new horror trilogy about an ordinary American kid caught up in an invisible war against the very worst enemy imaginable.

When a sixteen-year-old troublemaker named Marlow Green is trapped in a surreal firefight against nightmarish creatures in the middle of his New York City neighborhood, he unwittingly finds himself amid a squad of secret soldiers dedicated to battling the legions of the devil himself. Powering this army of young misfits is an ancient machine from the darkest parts of history. Known as the devil's engine, it can make any wish come true-as long as you are willing to put your life on the line. Promised powers beyond belief, and facing monstrous apparitions straight out of the netherworld, Marlow must decide if he's going to submit to a demonic deal with the infernal machine that will enable him to join the crusade-if it doesn't kill him first.

About this title

About the Author

Alexander Gordon Smith lives in Norwich, England. "The Stephen King of YA horror," he is the author of The Fury; The Inventors; the Escape from Furnace series, which has sold nearly half-a-million copies; and the Devil's Engine series.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Devil's Engine

Hellraisers

By Alexander Gordon Smith

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Copyright © 2015 Alexander Gordon Smith
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-374-30169-9

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Part I: New World, 
Hellraiser, 
Slaughterhouse, 
Breathless, 
Collateral Damage, 
Drowning Sorrows, 
Do Your Worst, 
Coward's Way Out, 
Ice Queen, 
Call Them Choices?, 
You Gotta Laugh, 
Look at Him Go, 
0.37%, 
Who the Hell is Steely Dan?, 
Fast Exit, 
Ghosts, 
Crazy Stupid, 
When All Hell Breaks Loose, 
Safety's Off, 
Fight! Fight! Fight!, 
Mammon, 
Fresh Kills, 
She's Expiring, 
Goodbyes, 
Part II: Old Magic, 
Don't Barf in My Jet, 
Another World, 
The Book of Dead Engineers, 
The Engine, 
Drowning, 
Not Much of a Gamer, 
Double Double Double Crap, 
How the Hell Did We Get to Budapest?, 
Free Fall, 
Protocol Can Kiss My Ass, 
Your Mission, If You Choose to Accept It ..., 
Part III: When Worlds Collide, 
Homecoming, 
Doing the Vanishing Act Again, 
Confessions, 
Unfinished Business, 
Crush Ass, Don't Die, 
Goddamned Wormbag, 
We Should Probably Kill It, 
Finish Her!, 
In Hell, 
Better the Devil You Know, 
About the Author, 
Also by Alexander Gordon Smith, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

HELLRAISER

That was the trouble with being a hellraiser.

Sometimes you got burned.

Marlow Green knew this better than anyone. How many times had he heard it? From his teachers, when he got kicked out of class. From the principals, when he got kicked out of schools. From his mom, over and over. You set fire to the world and you run, Marly. And he did. Not literally — hellraiser, yes; arsonist, definitely not — but he lit up the world around him, started wildfires that burned through bridges, that sent his friends and his family packing, that spat and roared into his future, destroying it before he could even get there. Then, when it got too hot, he turned and bolted.

One of these days you're gonna start a fire that can't be put out, his mom had told him. One you can't ever run fast enough to escape. And he'd always wondered when that would be, always wondered what he'd have to do to ignite an inferno of that magnitude.

Turned out the answer to the first question was now. And the second? Yeah, that would be carving a certain part of the male anatomy into the paintwork of his principal's car.

They came for him during class. They didn't knock, just barged in through the door like they were raiding a meth lab instead of math. Half the kids were dozing off, staring out the dirty windows at the blazing June sunshine that drenched Staten Island. The sight of three school cops and the principal flooding into the room like a dark, cold current made everyone jump.

"Green!" growled the principal, Mr. Caputo, a scarecrow of a man drowning in his cheap suit. He pointed a blade-like finger at Marlow. "That's him."

Oh, crap.

The biggest of the three cops pushed his way through the desks. Everyone called him Yogi because he was always confiscating kids' lunches, then scarfing them. That and the fact he was a major fat-ass. His eyes were two raisins drowning in the doughy flesh of his face and he smiled wickedly at Marlow with sausage lips.

"Got you."

Marlow blew out a long sigh and sat back in his chair, feeling the heat on his cheeks. He

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374301697
• ISBN 13: 9780374301699
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352