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We want to celebrate AJ Hartley on his new books Hideki Smith and the Omukade and Time Rider. He will read and discuss the books during an in-store event at 7 pm, Wednesday, October 29, 2025. Books are available for preorder. We look forward to seeing you at this free event.
Synopsis:
Hideki Smith is still a loser's loser, but the town needs him to be a hero again in this thrilling adventure story of family, found family, and sacrifice.
In this second installment of the Hideki Smith series, Hideki—the apprentice superhero formerly known as Caleb—and his shape shifting fox sister Emily, have barely had time to recover from saving their North Carolina mountain town from an invasion by creatures from Japanese folklore, but now it looks like that invasion might be back on.
Unfamiliar bugs are appearing all over Portersville and at least one of them is very strange and, it appears, getting bigger by the day. And that's not the only strange thing in town. A glamorous and persuasive stranger has captivated the locals and brought some very peculiar plans for the area.
And there are secrets closer to home too, some of which might be enough to tear Hideki’s family apart. Assuming the bugs don’t get them first…
Hideki Smith and the Omukade is the latest fantasy adventure novel from NY Times and USA Today best selling author A.J. Hartley (Cathedrals of Glass, Steeplejack) alongside Hisako Osako and Kuma Hartley.
Synopsis:
In a future where history itself is weaponized, one agent must choose between the sterile “perfection” of his engineered society and the messy humanity of the past he was sent to manipulate.
From New York Times bestselling author AJ Hartley and the imagination of disruptive creator Tom DeLonge comes an electrifying sci-fi thriller that challenges our understanding of time, history, and humanity. Building on their successful collaboration on the acclaimed Sekret Machines franchise, these creative powerhouses deliver a story that combines Hartley's masterful storytelling with DeLonge’s specialized knowledge of extraordinary phenomena.
Time Rider follows Bowie, an agent from a post-democracy future state known as the Design—where humanity is stratified into genetic castes, and emotional connections have been engineered away. Sent to 1963 on a mission to preserve a lynchpin moment of history from temporal terrorists: the assassination of the American President. Baffled by what he finds in Dallas, Bowie soon discovers that something far more strange and sinister is at work. Alongside journalist Sandra Rossi, he races across time to unveil a shocking picture of hidden agendas and extremist ideologies, that force him to reevaluate the world he came from and the future of humanity itself before they’re both lost to time.
More than a time-travel adventure, this thought-provoking thriller examines totalitarianism, the manipulation of history as a means of ideological indoctrination, and what it is that truly makes us human. Hartley and DeLonge craft a narrative that’s both action-packed and philosophically rich, challenging readers to consider how our understanding of the past shapes our future and what parts of ourselves we can never allow to be engineered away.
Time Rider is based on the Sinister Forces Trilogy by Peter Levenda
Author Bio:
A.J. Hartley is the international bestselling and award-winning author of 28 novels including the YA fantasy series HIDEKI SMITH, DEMON QUELLER, the 2nd of which—HIDEKI SMITH AND THE OMUKADE—releases in August 2025, as do the Japanese and bilingual editions of book 1. AJ also works with Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 on SEKRET MACHINES, CATHEDRALS OF GLASS and TRINITY. His latest book in this sci-fi collaboration, releasing October 2025, is TIME RIDER. Other recent work includes BURNING SHAKESPEARE, a quirky time travel adventure, and COLD BATH STREET, a ghost story. With David Hewson he wrote adaptations of Macbeth and Hamlet (Audible’s 2014 Book of the Year). He is Professor Emeritus of Shakespeare at UNC Charlotte, where he specialized in performance theory and practice, and hosts a J-rock focused YouTube channel. www.ajhartley.net
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
4139 Park Rd, Charlotte, NC, United States, North Carolina 28209
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
