Just a quick note to let everyone know that two of our clients have novellas included in Kobo’s current sale! Here are the details…
Lavie Tidhar‘s acclaimed MARTIAN SANDS is only $3.99 (US and Canada)…
1941: an hour before the attack on Pearl Harbour, a man from the future materialises in President Roosevelt’s office. His offer of military aid may cut the War and its pending atrocities short, and alter the course of the future…
The future: welcome to Mars, where the lives of three ordinary people become entwined in one dingy smokesbar the moment an assassin opens fire.
The target: the mysterious Bill Glimmung. But is Glimmung even real? The truth might just be found in the remote FDR Mountains, an empty place, apparently of no significance, but where digital intelligences may be about to bring to fruition a long-held dream of the stars…
Mixing mystery and science fiction, the Holocaust and the Mars of both Edgar Rice Burroughs and Philip K. Dick, Martian Sands is a story of both the past and future, of hope, and love, and of finding meaning—no matter where—or when—you are.
Here’s just a sample of reviews this great novella has received…
‘Feels more like early Kurt Vonnegut… both writers seem to channel the same prankster glee that covers deep despair. MARTIAN SANDS crackles with energy and life while poking at some big questions about the nature of reality.’ — Locus
‘A totally mad and very enjoyable book. The closest comparison I can think of is Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse 5 – Tidhar does the same thing of taking a overwhelmingly serious subject (in this case the Holocaust; in Slaughterhouse 5, the bombing of Dresden) and applying to it a surreal and farcical lens – using humour to highlight tragedy, which is of course what the best theatre does.’ — E.J. Swift, author of OSIRIS
‘… the work of a serious writer who writes entertainingly, who can be funny, political, speculative, provocative and charming, all at the same time. I’m not going to pretend I understood everything that was going on in MARTIAN SANDS, especially towards the end… but I would love to read a sequel that was even weirder. Tidhar writes equally well in several genres; CLOUD PERMUTATIONS and GOREL & THE POT-BELLIED GOD were, I thought, both excellent, but so dissimilar that one would be hard-pressed without title pages to identify them as the product of a single author. It seemed to me when reading MARTIAN SANDS that for Tidhar “classic science fiction” in the style of Silverberg, Brunner and Dick’s novels of the sixties is just another genre to which he can turn his hand as ably as he does all the others. In some ways that’s almost galling (“Here’s a Hugo winner I made earlier!”), but I hope he does it again.’ — Theaker’s Quarterly
Aliette de Bodard‘s IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE is only $2.99 (US)/$3.99 (Canada)…
In a ruined, devastated world, where the earth is poisoned and beings of nightmares roam the land…
A woman, betrayed, terrified, sold into indenture to pay her village’s debts and struggling to survive in a spirit world.
A dragon, among the last of her kind, cold and aloof but desperately trying to make a difference.
When failed scholar Yên is sold to Vu Côn, one of the last dragons walking the earth, she expects to be tortured or killed for Vu Côn’s amusement.
But Vu Côn, it turns out, has a use for Yên: she needs a scholar to tutor her two unruly children. She takes Yên back to her home, a vast, vertiginous palace-prison where every door can lead to death. Vu Côn seems stern and unbending, but as the days pass Yên comes to see her kinder and caring side. She finds herself dangerously attracted to the dragon who is her master and jailer. In the end, Yên will have to decide where her own happiness lies—and whether it will survive the revelation of Vu Côn’s dark, unspeakable secrets…
Here’s what others have said about IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE…
‘This intriguing, Sapphic, Vietnamese take on Beauty and the Beast is recommended for fans of De Bodard’s previous works or readers who enjoy diverse, lushly described fantasy.’ — Library Journal
‘De Bodard has taken the outline of a classic fable and turned it into a hall of mirrors as ravishing as it is disturbing.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)
‘I loved the worldbuilding throughout this story… a very enjoyable and often even soothing book, despite some fearful moments and emotional distress for the characters… I’ll follow [de Bodard] to whatever subgenre she wants to explore next.’ — Skiffy & Fanty
‘I always love a good re-imagining of my favourite fairy tale, and this one is exceptional—dark, ethereal, and enchanting.’ — Samantha Shannon
‘As a reframing of a classic fairy tale, IN THE VANISHERS’ PALACE is subversive and bold; as a romance, it is tentative, touching, and sweet.’ — Barnes & Noble
Lavie’s latest novel, BY FORCE ALONE is out now, published by Head of Zeus in the UK and Tor Books in North America.
Aliette’s latest book is SEVEN OF INFINITIES, the latest Xuya novella, published by Subterranean Press at the end of October.