The dragons call out, and the ratatoskas tell of murder. Come with us now. There is justice to be done.

Return to the magic of the Archipelago... The Poisoned King is the dazzling second book in Katherine Rundell's epic and bestselling Impossible Creatures series.

'There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell' - Michael Morpurgo

When Christopher Forrester is unexpectedly woken by a miniature dragon chewing on his face, his heart leaps for joy. For months he's dreamed of returning to the Archipelago - the secret islands where all the creatures of myth still live. But he did not know it would involve a rescue mission on the back of a sphinx, or a plan to enter a dragon's lair. Nor did he imagine it would involve a girl with a flock of birds at her side, a new-hatched chick in her pocket and a ravenous hunger for justice...

The unmissable sequel to Impossible Creatures, WINNER of the Waterstones Book of the Year, British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year, Foyles Children's Book of the Year and the Books Are My Bag Readers Award

'A book stuffed full of fantastical, magical delight' - Cressida Cowell on Impossible Creatures

'Readers will seize this with delight' - Philip Pullman on Impossible Creatures

'A masterpiece to rival Tolkien' - Daily Telegraph on Impossible Creatures

'Every sentence sparkles ... Magnificent' - The Times on Impossible Creatures

Katherine Rundell is a multi-million-bestselling author whose novels for children have won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children's Book Award, among many others. Impossible Creatures was Waterstones Book of the Year 2023, and in 2024 Katherine was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year and Impossible Creatures won the Children's Fiction Book of the Year. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College and a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford, where she works on Renaissance literature. Her books for adults include Super-Infinite, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize. Very occasionally she goes climbing across the rooftops of Oxford, late at night.