Quill and the Last Generation

Shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards 2026.

'A pulse-quickening adventure strewn with rich seams of myth, magic and mystery' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Girl of Ink and Stars

'Five stars. It's just perfection' - Archie, aged 9

'Magical storytelling at its best' The Scotsman

'Epic fantasy rooted in kindness and bursting with a rich mythology . . . It feels like the start of something really special' - Rob Biddulph

'Fresh and original, this is a gripping fantasy adventure . . . Magnificent' - Liz Hyder, author of The Twelve.

‘Quill is my new favourite hero. A thunderously good story’ - Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse

Quill and the Last Generation is the first in a spectacular epic fantasy trilogy from award-winning author C. M. Lewis. Perfect for readers of 9-12 who love Skandar, Percy Jackson, and Cressida Cowell.

A world without children is a world dying for a hero. No babies have been born for twelve years. No one knows why.

Quill, a shy, ordinary, twelve-year-old boy, doesn't know the first thing about being a hero. But that changes the moment a mysterious young shapeshifter, in the form of a raven, opens his eyes to a world bursting with urgent magic and breathtaking danger. Quill must prepare for

• DRAGONS that guard the deepest secrets,
• A MONSTROUS HOUND hunting lost souls and
• A WATER HORSE of deadly beauty.

Everyone believes Quill is the last generation's only hope. But to save everyone, he must be ready to face the King of Darkness in battle, and claim the Light of the World before time runs out. First he needs to find the courage to fight.

C. M. Lewis is a multi-award-winning Welsh novelist, children’s writer, playwright and screenwriter, who also writes as Caryl Lewis. Her breakthrough novel Martha, Jac a Sianco, widely regarded as a modern classic of Welsh literature, is on the Welsh curriculum, and the film adaptation - with a screenplay by Lewis herself – went on to win six Welsh BAFTAs. Lewis’s other screenwriting work includes BBC/S4C thrillers Hinterland and Hidden. She has won Wales Book of the Year three times and is the only writer to have won in both languages. Caryl’s work for children has twice scooped the Tir na n-Og Award, and has been shortlisted for both the Branford Boase and The Week Junior Awards. Quill and the Last Generation is her debut fantasy novel drawing on Celtic myths and the Welsh language stories of her childhood. Lewis is a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing at Cardiff University, and lives with her family on a farm near Aberystwyth.

Interior art: Marina Vidal particularly likes illustrating fiction, fantasy, sci-fi and horror books, and has illustrated for many notable international authors, such as Terry Pratchett. She enjoys making zines and taking them to comic book fairs. She also teaches at a comics school in Sabadell, Spain. She loves cats, raccoons, mushrooms, boardgames and green tea.

Cover art: Khadijah is a Malaysian illustrator and concept artist who is passionate in music, film and fashion. Born in the sunny, bustling city of Kuala Lumpur, Khadijah has illustrated more than 50 book covers for publishers such as National Geographic, Disney, Scholastic, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan Publishers. Khadijah's most known works are her reimagined, new covers for Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus. As she is diverse in the work that she does, Khadijah has also worked on concept art for films and games, as well as illustrated an album cover for K-pop's AleXa.arina lives in Barcelona, Spain with her cat.