Lily Starling and the River of Time

by Christian Hurst

Genres: YA Steampunk

Synopsis

Lily Starling finally has everything she never dared to dream of: a home aboard the Salamander, a future she chose, and someone she loves. For the first time in her life, the chaos has quieted enough for her to imagine the impossible.

Staying.

Until a stranger steps out of the fractures of time and offers her an impossible choice.

As temporal disturbances tear across the galaxy, Lily is pulled toward a buried secret in the past, and a devastating question:

Is any of this hers to keep?

To find the answer, she must descend into the currents of time itself, where the past cannot be rewritten, only confronted. But the deeper the river carries her, the farther she’s pulled from the people waiting for her return.

Some wounds refuse to heal with time.

And some people will burn the universe down to reclaim what they lost.

Lily Starling and the River of Time is the sweeping, heart-wrenching fourth installment in Christian Hurst’s acclaimed YA sci-fi series. A powerful story about identity, grief, love, and the courage to believe your life is worth holding onto.

Release date: October 9, 2026

Publisher: Outpost Books SE

Print pages: 497