Kyoko M is a USA Today bestselling author and a fangirl. She is the author of The Black Parade urban fantasy series and the Of Cinder and Bone science-fiction series. The Black Parade has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews. Of Cinder and Bone placed in the Top 30 Books in Hugh Howey's 2021 Self Published Science Fiction Contest. Kyoko M has appeared as a guest and panelist at such conventions as Geek Girl Con, DragonCon, Blacktasticon, Momocon, and Multiverse Con. She is also a contributor to Marvel Comics' Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda (2021) anthology. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Lit degree from the University of Georgia.

Of Cinder and Bone by Kyoko M.

OF CINDER AND BONE is Ron Howard's Ransom meets Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park!

After centuries of being the most dangerous predators on the planet, dragons were hunted to extinction. That is, until Dr. Rhett "Jack" Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali cracked the code to bring them back. Through their research at MIT, they resurrected the first dragon anyone has seen alive since the 15th century.

There's just one problem.

Someone stole it.

Caught between two ruthless yakuza clans who want to clone the dragon, Jack and Kamala brave the dangerous streets of Tokyo to steal their dragon back in a race against time before the world is taken over by mutated, bloodthirsty monsters that will raze it to ashes.

 

REVIEWS

  • "The author takes time to develop the characters and their relationships, which becomes important and the story moves along. Pete the dragon is the catalyst that forces the characters to examine their feelings about each other and their world. There's action and romance, but what I love most about Of Cinder and Bone is the dialogue. Kyoko M is a master at bringing her characters to life through conversation and witty exchanges."

    – Milton J. Davis, author of Changa Safari and From Here to Timbuktu, June 6, 2020

  • "Oh my goodness, the voice in this book. That was what originally drew me in, and kept me going through the whole thing. I got only a few chapters in and there is a tense will he/she won't he/she relationship between three characters with enough bisexual energy to stun a dragon. Speaking of which, I also love the world this is in, which is just like ours, except dragons, an offshoot of dinosaurs, were alive and well until the 1400s."

    – William C. Tracy, one of the judges for the 2021 Hugh Howey Self Published Science Fiction Competition, January 19th, 2022 

  • "Of Cinder and Bone was one of only three books that my group unanimously selected to go into our round of full reads. The group was intrigued by its strong, fun characters and hints of a dragon plot mixed with some sci-fi. I personally thought it was a kind of Jurassic Park with dragons and stronger characters scenario and was all in from the get-go. Now I've finished the book, and I think the strengths that were clear at the beginning didn't let me down. The characters in the novel are real, living people that you want to root for or smack upside the head by turns. Even minor characters get significant development, with a few of them almost supplanting the core three characters to take over the story."

    – J.W. Wartick, a judge in the 2021 Hugh Howey Self Published Science Fiction Competition, December 9th, 2021
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Jack raised his gun as a man came around the front of the truck and opened fire with a roar, emptying the clip into the man's chest. The yakuza crumpled to the road in a heap. Another one stepped out from behind him and raised his AR-15, his finger closing on the trigger.

And then the dragon dropped out of the sky right on top of him.

Pete slammed the man to the ground with her clawed feet and took a vicious bite out of his neck, killing him instantly. A third man jumped on top of the truck's hood and stopped dead out of pure shock, as he was now level with her. The dragon snarled and slammed her tail into his chest. It sent him cartwheeling off the edge of the road and down into the ravine beside it, screaming the whole way.

The dragon snorted once and then hurried over to Jack and Kamala, sniffing them briefly in confirmation, and then nudging them towards her large, scaly torso.

"I… I think she wants us to get on," Kamala said, dumbfounded as Pete bumped her side up against them and flapped her huge wings.

"That's impossible," Jack sputtered. "The two of us together nearly weigh three hundred pounds. She can't possibly lift—holy shitbricks!"

Impatient, the dragon slid her neck through Jack's parted legs and stood up, barking once at Kamala. She threw her leg over the dragon's back. Then Pete took three mighty steps towards the edge of the road and leapt off.

For three terrifying seconds, they dropped through the air like a cement block.

Then, Pete's leathery wings spread and they flew.

Gunfire cracked behind them, but the dragon flapped her wings to carry them higher out of harm's way. She wheeled to one side and they disappeared into the shadow of the mountain range, over the forest below.

Jack dug his fingers into the dragon's collar and finally opened his eyes. He stared speechless at the ground easily forty feet below them and into the cloudy horizon. Wind whistled past his ears, interrupted only by the powerful strokes of the dragon's wings and the raspy clink of the chain still dragging below her body as they cut through the crisp air. She flew smoothly, as if she'd been doing it all her life, as if it were an effortless skill.

Behind him, Kamala had locked her arms around his waist and buried her face between his shoulder blades when they'd first taken off. Now, she held one hand out flat, her palm parallel to the ground, feeling the wind rushing over it. Half-hysterical laughter enveloped them both as the dragon carried them higher still, until they were circling one of the mountain's peaks.

Enormous clouds piled high around the mountain and the air became sharply cold as they neared it. The trees stopped halfway up its craggy face and gave way to perpetual ice created from the height and upper atmosphere. As Pete circled for the fourth time, they realized she was searching for shelter.

On the fifth pass, the dragon brought her wings in close to her body in a dive as they reached a cliff near the mouth of a cave. She fought the stiff wind and landed hard, digging her claws into the earth. Jack helped Kamala off and the dragon shook herself and stepped forward into the cave. The two of them called to her, but she paid them no mind. The freezing temperature and high winds wouldn't make it easy to get down any time soon.

They had no choice.