Book excerpt: Continuing from celebrated author Neil Gaiman’s iconic graphic novel, the complete chronicles of Tim Hunter are finally brought together in a definitive new trade paperback. Once, Timothy Hunter was just an ordinary 13-year-old boy living in suburban London. Then four legendary sorcerers took him on a journey beyond time and space, and his life changed forever. Traveling through realms long consigned to myth and legend, he also discovered an unsettling truth about his future: like it or not, fate has decreed that young Tim is destined to become the world’s greatest magician! Unfortunately for him, this innocence smells intoxicatingly like weakness to the hungry predators that haunt the shadows of existence, and the extraordinary power they sense within his frail human form is too enticing to resist. Written by John Ney Rieber and illustrated by Peter Gross, Gary Amaro and Peter Snejbjerg, THE BOOKS OF MAGIC BOOK ONE collects issues #1-13 of the classic VERTIGO series as well as the pivotal introductory tale from ARCANA ANNUAL #1.