Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar & Grady Hendrix are Locus Award Finalists!


Announced yesterday, we’re very happy to report that Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar, and Grady Hendrix are among this year’s Locus Award Finalists!

Aliette de Bodard’s highly acclaimed novella FIREHEART TIGER (Tor.com) is a finalist in the Novella category. MULBERRY AND OWL (Uncanny Magazine) is a finalist in the Novelette category.

Fire burns bright and has a long memory…

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 (Head of Zeus/AdAstra), edited by Lavie Tidhar (and including a story by Aliette: IMMERSION) is amongst the finalists in the Anthology category.

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Grady Hendrix’s THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP (Titan), which also won a Goodreads Choice Award, is a finalist in the Horror category.

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized — someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

Huge congratulations to Aliette, Lavie and Grady!

Award winners will be announced on June 25, 2022, during the virtual Locus Awards Weekend.

*

Zeno represents Grady Hendrix in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Aliette de Bodard Wins BSFA Award for FIREHEART TIGER!


In case you missed the news: Aliette de Bodard has won a BSFA Award for FIREHEART TIGER! Winning in the Best Shorter Fiction category, we hope you’ll join us in sending congratulations to Aliette!

But wait, that’s not all! Last week, it was also announced that FIREHEART TIGER is a finalist for the Ignyte Award for Best Novella!

The novella is published by Tor.com. Here’s the synopsis…

Fire burns bright and has a long memory….

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

Next Week: Italian Edition of THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Vol.1!


Next week, Fanucci is due to publish IL GRANDE LIBRO DELLA FANTASCIENZA MONDIALE, the Italian edition of THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Vol.1. Edited by Lavie Tidhar, it’s a fantastic collection of science fiction stories by authors from around the world. Here’s the synopsis…

Il grande libro della fantascienza mondiale” riunisce ventisei storie provenienti da tutto lo spettro della fantascienza – leggerai di robot, astronavi e viaggi nel tempo, oltre a cose davvero strane – che rappresentano ventuno Paesi e quattro continenti. Lavie Tidhar ha selezionato racconti che spaziano da autori esordienti e mai sentiti prima ad altri vincitori di premi, in ogni momento della loro carriera.

Questi i Paesi rappresentati: Francia, Cina, Singapore, Botswana, Nigeria, India, Giappone, Italia, Cuba, Regno Unito, Brasile, Trinidad e Tobago, Spagna, Messico, Finlandia, Israele, Islanda, Russia, Ghana, Sudafrica, Svezia e Malesia.

Gli autori, quattordici donne e dodici uomini sono Aliette de Bodard, Chen Qiufan, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Chinelo Onwualu, Vandana Singh, Han Song, Ng Yi-Sheng, Taiyo Fujii, Francesco Verso, Malena Salazar Maciá, Tade Thompson, Fabio Fernandes, R.S.A. Garcia, Cristina Jurado, Gerardo Horacio Porcayo, Hannu Rajaniemi, Nir Yaniv, Emil Hjörvar Petersen, Ekaterina Sedia, Kuzhali Manickavel, Kofi Nyameye, Lauren Beukes, Karin Tidbeck, Silvia Moreno-Garcia e Zen Cho.

The English-language edition is published in the UK and North America by Head of Zeus. Here’s the synopsis…

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Here’s the full table of contents…

  • ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard
  • ‘Debtless’ by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks)
  • ‘Fandom for Robots’ by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • ‘Virtual Snapshots’ by Tlotlo Tsamaase
  • ‘What The Dead Man Said’ by Chinelo Onwualu
  • ‘Delhi’ by Vandana Singh
  • ‘The Wheel of Samsara’ by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author)
  • ‘Xingzhou’ by Yi-Sheng Ng
  • ‘Prayer’ by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski)
  • ‘The Green Ship’ by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert)
  • ‘Eyes of the Crocodile’ by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei)
  • ‘Bootblack’ by Tade Thompson
  • ‘The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things’ by Fabio Fernandes
  • ‘The Sun From Both Sides’ by R.S.A. Garcia
  • ‘Dump’ by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood)
  • ‘Rue Chair’ by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author)
  • ‘His Master’s Voice’ by Hannu Rajaniemi
  • ‘Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys’ by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar)
  • ‘The Cryptid’ by Emil H. Petersen(trans. from Icelandic by the author)
  • ‘The Bank of Burkina Faso’ by Ekaterina Sedia
  • ‘An Incomplete Guide…’ by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • ‘The Old Man with The Third Hand’ by Kofi Nyameye
  • ‘The Green’ by Lauren Beukes
  • ‘The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir’ by Karin Tidbeck
  • ‘Prime Meridian’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • ‘If At First You Don’t Succeed’ by Zen Cho

Aliette de Bodard, Josh Winning & Adam Oyebanji at CYMERA 2022!


Three Zeno clients will be attending Cymera 2022! Aliette de Bodard, Josh Winning, and Adam Oyebanji will all be taking place in virtual panels. (Tickets are required, and details can be found via the relevant links, below.) The book festival is taking place between June 3rd-5th. Here are the details for our authors…

Aliette de Bodard will be taking part in the Elemental Forces panel:

  • ‘History hides many a tale, and some are more powerful than others.’
  • Saturday, June 4th — 11:30am-12:30pm

Aliette’s latest book, the multi-award nominated FIREHEART TIGER, is out now — published by Tor.com. Also, this past weekend, the book won the BSFA Award for Best Novella!

Fire burns bright and has a long memory….

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate—and her own?

Adam Oyebanji will be on the Ad Astra panel:

  • ‘Journey among the stars on faster-than-light spaceships and settle on planets and space stations with these stories of humankind’s foray beyond Earth.’
  • Saturday, June 4th — 4-5pm

Adam’s debut novel, BRAKING DAY, is out now — published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books.

Interstellar Vehicle Archimedes has been hurtling through space for more than five generations, an oasis of heat and light in the middle of absolutely nowhere. But now the ageing starship is preparing to brake, for it is arriving at Destination Star: Tau Ceti, the new home for the space-born descendants of the First Crew.

For trainee engineer Ravinder MacLeod, the world he knows is coming to an end. Once Archimedes succumbs to the gravitational pull of the Destination Star and its (hopefully) habitable planet, there will be no going back – or anywhere else. As Braking Day approaches, Ravi finds himself caught between the rigid requirements of the officer class to which he aspires and his blue-collar, ne’er-do-well family. Unfortunately for Ravi, Boz, his brilliant ex-con cousin, seems determined to make his life difficult – not least by her experiments with forbidden technology.

Then Ravi is assigned to routine maintenance deep in the massive engines of the Archimedes, where, alone and out of contact, he comes face to face with something impossible – mind-breakingly impossible.

Plagued by nightmares and visions and worried that his grip on reality is slipping, Ravi turns to Boz for help. Their search for answers takes them to the jagged place where the ship’s future intersects with its long past. For not everyone is excited to be reaching journey’s end, and the ghosts of the First Crew may not have been fully laid to rest.

Josh Winning will take part in the panel, The Making of a Hero:

  • Sunday, June 5th — 12:30pm-1:30pm

Josh’s acclaimed debut novel, THE SHADOW GLASS, is out now in the UK and in North America — published by Titan Books.

Jack Corman is failing at life.

Jobless, jaded and on the “wrong” side of thirty, he’s facing the threat of eviction from his London flat while reeling from the sudden death of his father, one-time film director Bob Corman. Back in the eighties, Bob poured his heart and soul into the creation of his 1986 puppet fantasy The Shadow Glass, a film Jack loved as a child, idolising its fox-like hero Dune.

But The Shadow Glass flopped on release, deemed too scary for kids and too weird for adults, and Bob became a laughing stock, losing himself to booze and self-pity. Now, the film represents everything Jack hated about his father, and he lives with the fear that he’ll end up a failure just like him.

In the wake of Bob’s death, Jack returns to his decaying home, a place creaking with movie memorabilia and painful memories. Then, during a freak thunderstorm, the puppets in the attic start talking. Tipped into a desperate real-world quest to save London from the more nefarious of his father’s creations, Jack teams up with excitable fanboy Toby and spiky studio executive Amelia to navigate the labyrinth of his father’s legacy while conjuring the hero within––and igniting a Shadow Glass resurgence that could, finally, do his father proud.

Zeno represents Adam Oyebanji in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Paperback Edition of THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 is Out Tomorrow!


The paperback edition of the acclaimed THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 anthology is out tomorrow! Published by Ad Astra/Head of Zeus, the collection is edited by Lavie Tidhar. Here’s the synopsis…

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Here’s the full Table of Contents:

  • IMMERSION by Aliette de Bodard
  • DEBTLESS by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks)
  • FANDOM FOR ROBOTS by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • VIRTUAL SNAPSHOTS by Tlotlo Tsamaase
  • WHAT THE DEAD MAN SAID by Chinelo Onwualu
  • DELHI by Vandana Singh
  • THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author)
  • XINGZHOU by Yi-Sheng Ng
  • PRAYER by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski)
  • THE GREEN SHIP by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert)
  • EYES OF THE CROCODILE by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei)
  • BOOTBLACK by Tade Thompson
  • THE EMPTINESS IN THE HEART OF ALL THINGS by Fabio Fernandes
  • THE SUN FROM BOTH SIDES by R.S.A. Garcia
  • DUMP by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood)
  • RUE CHAIR by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author)
  • HIS MASTER’S VOICE by Hannu Rajaniemi
  • BENJAMIN SCHNEIDER’S LITTLE GREYS by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar)
  • THE CRYPTID by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author)
  • THE BANK OF BURKINA FASO by Ekaterina Sedia
  • AN INCOMPLETE GUIDE… by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • THE OLD MAN WITH THE THIRD HAND by Kofi Nyameye
  • THE GREEN by Lauren Beukes
  • THE LAST VOYAGE OF SKIDBLADNIR by Karin Tidbeck
  • PRIME MERIDIAN by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED by Zen Cho

ICYMI: The World SF StoryBundle 4 Has Launched!


The World SF StoryBundle 4 has been launched! Curated once again by Lavie Tidhar, it includes a fantastic selection of fiction from an international cast of authors…

  • Aliette de BodardON A RED STATION DRIFTING
  • Francesco VersoBLOODBUSTERS
  • Dilman DilaTHE FUTURE GOD OF LOVE
  • Xueting Ni (ed.)SINOPTICON
  • Un-Su KimTHE CABINET
  • Rokuro InuiAUTOMATIC EVE
  • Lavie TidharGOREL AND THE POT-BELLIED GOD
  • Thilde Kold HoldeNORTHERN WRATH
  • Fabio FernandesLOVE. AN ARCHAEOLOGY
  • Wole TalabiINCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS

Here’s what Lavie had to say about the new bundle

It’s hard to believe this is now the fifth annual World SF bundle I get the good fortune to curate. The first one was back in 2018!

And yet with every year it’s possible to find more great books – novels, novellas, anthologies and collections – that highlight the sheer talent and diversity of speculative fiction from around the world.

The future doesn’t need to be American anymore. Can it be Vietnamese? Italian? Nigerian? Chinese? You bet it can.

I can imagine nothing more rewarding than being able to share these books with new readers, while supporting the authors and their publishers directly through this bundle. Not to mention supporting a wonderfully worthwhile charity at the same time! So join me, if you will, into the reaches of space and deep into the South American jungles, to the distant past and to the tombs of the moon!

With writers from France, Japan, Italy, Uganda, Korea, China, Brazil, Nigeria and Denmark, you really are in for a truly international feast!

With proceeds from each bundle going to the authors and charity, this is a great way to discover great, international writing talent and also do a little bit of good.

The bundle is available for another 18 days, so make sure you check out the website for full details and to purchase the bundle!

Aliette de Bodard’s Next Book is out in June: OF CHARMS, GHOSTS AND GRIEVANCES!


Last week, Aliette de Bodard unveiled Ravven‘s striking cover for her next novella, OF CHARMS, GHOSTS AND GRIEVANCES. Set in the same world as the award-winning Dominion of the Fallen series, this is the second book in the Dragons and Blades series. Due to be published by JABberwocky, on June 28th, here’s the synopsis…

From the author of the critically acclaimed Dominion of the Fallen trilogy comes a sparkling new romantic adventure full of kissing, sarcasm and stabbing.

It was supposed to be a holiday, with nothing more challenging than babysitting, navigating familial politics and arguing about the proper way to brew tea.

But when dragon prince Thuan and his ruthless husband Asmodeus find a corpse in a ruined shrine and a hungry ghost who is the only witness to the crime, their holiday goes from restful to high-pressure. Someone is trying to silence the ghost and everyone involved. Asmodeus wants revenge for the murder; Thuan would like everyone, including Asmodeus, to stay alive.

Chased by bloodthirsty paper charms and struggling to protect their family, Thuan and Asmodeus are going to need all the allies they can — and, as the cracks in their relationship widen, they’ll have to face the scariest challenge of all: how to bring together their two vastly different ideas of their future…

A heartwarming standalone book set in a world of dark intrigue.

The Dominion of the Fallen novels are published by Gollancz in the UK, and Roc Books (1-2) and JABberwocky (3) in North America: THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS, THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS, and THE HOUSE OF SUNDERING FLAMES. The first book in the Dragons and Blades series — OF DRAGONS, FEASTS AND MURDERS — is also published by JABberwocky.

Here are just a few of the advance reviews for the novella…

‘A darkly delicious romp full of ghosts, murder, dragons, and romance, with a couple that just keeps getting better and better as they push each other to new limits.’Stephanie Burgis, author of Snowspelled and Scales and Sensibility

‘Beautifully described, deeply caring, and satisfyingly murderous, it’s an immersive delight.’KJ Charles, author of the Will Darling Adventures

‘This one has everything… I gulped it down when I should have savoured it like a delicate tea, but what can I say.’Freya Marske, author of A Marvelous Light

ICYMI: Aliette de Bodard Interviewed on Page Break Podcast


Today, we wanted to draw your attention to Aliette de Bodard‘s interview for Brian McClellan’s Page Break podcast.

Brian’s guest is software engineer and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Aliette de Bodard. Aliette has been published in magazines, ezines, collections, and in long form by major publishers across a prolific career. She has either been nominated for or outright won many of the big awards in genre publishing.

Aliette and Brian talked about history and conflict; about writing and rewriting, and how working with translators and being multilingual change the way writers think about our stories.

If you’d prefer to listen to the podcast on your phone (or other device), it is available from most podcast hosting apps.

Aliette’s latest book is the award-nominated and critically-acclaimed novella, FIREHEART TIGER. Published by Tor.com, it’s out now. Here’s the synopsis…

Fire burns bright and has a long memory…

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

Aliette is also the author of the acclaimed, award-winning Dominion of the Fallen series, published by Gollancz (UK), Roc Books and JABberwocky (North America); and also the Obsidian & Blood series, published by JABberwocky.

Zeno Clients Well-Represented on Locus 2021 Recommended Reading List!


Last week, Locus released their 2021 Recommended Reading List, and we’re very happy to report that six titles by Zeno clients were included! We thought we’d take this opportunity to highlight these titles, below…

Lavie Tidhar appeared three times on the list. His two novels from last year, THE ESCAPEMENT and THE HOOD were both included in the Novels: Fantasy list. THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1, which Lavie curated and edited, also appeared on the Anthologies list.

THE ESCAPEMENT is published by Tachyon Publications, with a Special Edition also available from PS Publishing. In addition to appearing on this list, it was recently announced as a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. Here’s the synopsis…

Into the Escapement rides the Stranger, a lone gunman on a quest to rescue his son in a strange parallel reality. But it is easy to lose one’s way on an endlessly shifting, unpredictable landscape. Especially in a place full of dangerous mirror-images of a child’s beloved things: lawless heroes, giants made of stone, downtrodden clowns, spectacular symbol storms, and an endless war between gods and shadowy beings.

As the Stranger has learned, the Escapement is a dreamscape of deep mysteries, unlikely allies, and unwinnable battles. Yet the flower the he seeks still lies beyond the Mountains of Darkness. Time is running out as the Stranger journeys deeper into the secret heart of an unimaginable world.

In his most compelling work to date, Lavie Tidhar has delivered a multicolored tapestry of dazzling imagery. The Escapement is an epic, wildly original chronicle of the extraordinary lengths to which one will go for love.

THE HOOD is the second novel in Lavie’s acclaimed Anti-Matter of Britain Quartet, and is published by Head of Zeus.

God bless you, England, on this glorious Year of Our Lord, 1145.

Things are definitely not right in Nottingham. Rebecca, daughter of a Jewish money-lender, has a sense for it.

A mad monk schemes to resurrect the Christ from body parts. A bone harpist murders creatures of legend for a price. A fae creature binds its wings and embraces a new God and his son.

And don’t even mention the Hood. The Man in Green. The Prince of Thieves. The tick-tock taker of the ten-toll tax.

What hope have the series of sheriffs sent to hold the peace?

It’s the forest, you see. Sherwood. Ice Age ancient, impenetrable, hiding a dark and secret heart. But hearts, no matter how black, no matter how hidden, are not immune to change. The old world is dying… and a terrifying new one is waiting to take its place.

Rebecca senses an opportunity. But how far is she willing to go, and what price – because there is always a price – will she have to pay?

The Hood is Lavie Tidhar’s narcotic reweirding of an ancient English myth, a tale stitched together from legends lost to time, a tale told and retold, reworked and renewed for each passing century. A tale, reader, for today.

An acclaimed collection of science fiction from around the world, THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 is also published by Head of Zeus. (We’ll have details of Volume 2 to share with you soon.)

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Aliette de Bodard also appears multiple times on the list. Her latest novella, FIREHEART TIGER continues to rack up plaudits, praise, and commendations, and is a recommended Novella from last year. Published by Tor.com, here’s the synopsis…

Fire burns bright and has a long memory…

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

Published in the September/October 2021 issue of Uncanny Magazine, Aliette’s MULBERRY AND OWL was also included in the Novellete list. The story can be read for free now, on the magazine’s website.

Year of the Âm Dragon, fifth year of the Peaceful Harmony Empress, Great Mulberry Nebula

Thuỷ stood in her cabin in The Goby in the Well, her bots arrayed on her shoulders and clinging to her wrists, and watched the heart of the nebula…

Hot on the heels of winning the Goodreads Choice Award for Horror, Grady Hendrix‘s THE FINAL GIRL SUPPORT GROUP has also been selected for Locus’s Horror Recommended Reading list. Published in the UK by Titan Books, here’s the synopsis…

In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized — someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

Zeno represents Grady Hendrix in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

FIREHEART TIGER on the BSFA Award Longlist!


We’re very happy to report that FIREHEART TIGER by Aliette de Bodard is on the 2021 BSFA Award Short Fiction longlist! The author’s latest critically-acclaimed novella, it’s out now, published by Tor.com. Here’s the synopsis…

Fire burns bright and has a long memory…

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

Congratulations, Aliette!

In case you need more convincing to check out the book, here are just a few of the reviews it has received…

‘[A] high-stakes lesbian love triangle in this tightly plotted fantasy novella… convincingly combines sex, politics, and betrayal. This is an ideal pick for fantasy fans longing for non-European settings.’ — Publishers Weekly

FIREHEART TIGER… is a delicate novella with threads of imperial politics, magical beings, queer romance and the psychology of trauma. It’s a bit of a miracle to feel as if you’ve read a six-book fantasy series in so few pages. This book is elegant and hypnotic as the flame of a candle, and I’ll be thinking for some time about the shadows it throws into relief.’ — New York Times Book Review

‘A fascinating story filled with strong female characters and lush prose, the relationships woven around Thanh evolve into themes of reclaiming the self and recognizing that love can hide the truth about people… a story of love, power, and what burns within. Highly recommended.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘De Bodard…, as she so often does, packs the world-building and emotional punch of an epic into a shockingly slim novella. This touching romance with the delicate negotiations of a small country’s survival against an imperial adversary would be a lovely place to start with de Bodard’s work, and fans will find more of what they’ve come to love about her stories.’ — Booklist

‘This latest novella by Aliette de Bodard is a moving, engaging tale of politics, love, divided loyalties, and betrayal. It has many of the hallmarks of a great de Bodard story… If you are new to the author’s work, then this novella could serve as a very good introduction… Recommended.’ — Civilian Reader

Short Fiction Watch: THE LONG TAIL by Aliette de Bodard


In this instalment of Short Fiction Watch, we wanted to draw your attention to Aliette de Bodard‘s THE LONG TAIL — originally published as part of Wired’s Future of Work series, in November 2020, it has now been included in Neil Clarke‘s THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE YEAR, Volume 6.

“Everyone onboard the scavenging habitat knew there was no correlation between the unreality and what lay underneath.”

IT WAS JUST a room.

Another one on the wreck of the Conch Citadel: holes in the walls and in the ceiling and floor, floating debris and rusting furniture that must have once been pristine and polished, the state of the art of Đại Ánh. A series of disc-shaped auxiliary robots and larger maintenance mechs parked in the walls, gleaming in the light projected by Thu’s lamp. Nothing out of the ordinary…

Aliette is the multi-award winning author of a number of novels, series, and shorter fiction. Her latest novella, the acclaimed FIREHEART TIGER is published by Tor.com.

The author’s Dominion of the Fallen trilogy is published by Gollancz in the UK, and Roc Books/JABberwocky in North America.

New Xuya Short Story from Aliette de Bodard… and another Award Nomination!


Today we have two great pieces of Aliette de Bodard news! First up, there’s a new short story set in the author’s acclaimed Xuya series: MULBERRY AND OWL is published in the September/October 2021 issue of Uncanny Magazine! (You can also read the story online now!)

Year of the Âm Dragon, fifth year of the Peaceful Harmony Empress, Great Mulberry Nebula

Thuỷ stood in her cabin in The Goby in the Well, her bots arrayed on her shoulders and clinging to her wrists, and watched the heart of the nebula.

There was absolutely nothing remarkable about it: the Great Mulberry Nebula was large, sparsely dotted with nascent stars, and so remote that getting there, even via deep spaces, had required a three month journey. On the overlay in Thuỷ’s cabin — a thin sliver like a screen, showing her the merged data of all The Goby in the Well’s sensors — there was very little to see, either: a darkness that seemed to spread absolute from the centre of the overlay, and a corresponding gravity spike for the trapping of the light…

Aliette’s Xuya fiction is published in the UK by JABberwocky, and in North America by Subterranean Press.

‘De Bodard’s worldbuilding is precise and glittering, elegant and atmospheric… writing is always full of empathy and personality… a lovely little character-focused mystery, and everything about it delights…’ Tor.com (Hugo Award Novella Spotlight)

We’re also happy to report that Aliette’s Dominion of the Fallen series is a finalist for Best Series in this year’s Subjective Chaos Kind of Awards! The series includes the novels THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS, THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS, and THE HOUSE OF SUNDERING FLAMES — published in the UK by Gollancz, and in North America by Roc Books (#1-2) and JABberwocky (#3). The series also includes the novella OF DRAGONS, FEASTS, AND MURDERS, published by JABberwocky.

‘Will grab readers and force them to pay attention to the amazing writing and the phenomenal characters. de Bodard will sweep you up into the dark and dirty world Paris has become. The characters are very vivid and will stay with you until long after the last page, as each of them is fighting and longing for something. The writing style rendered the characters’ feelings and emotional turmoil beautifully. Watching Philippe and Isabelle work through their “connection” is fascinating and lovely. There’s so much going on, and every character has their own past, their own tragic history. It’s a whirlwind, it’s heartbreaking and it’s one of the best fantasy novels of 2015.’ — RT Book Reviews (Top Pick August 2015)

‘A gripping tragedy of forlorn individuals caught up in an angelic version of the Cold War… The story holds up well as a standalone, with clear possibilities but no pressing need for a sequel. De Bodard aptly mixes moral conflicts and the desperate need to survive in a fantastical spy thriller that reads like a hybrid of le Carré and Milton, all tinged with the melancholy of golden ages lost.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘De Bodard… has spun a fascinating Paris of decay and cruelty. ­Phillippe is a marvel of a character, unreliable as a narrator but compelling in his flaws and his deep well of homesickness.‘ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘A beautifully crafted novel full of complex characters, set in a post apocalyptic Paris – the image of which is truly haunting… vivid and fast-paced battles and intense political manoeuvrings… with carefully crafted characters both with layers and depth, De Bodard reflects the best and worst of human nature in her novel… an intriguing mystery, elegantly written… Something any avid fantasy reader with an open mind will devour!’ — Guardian

Aliette’s latest book is the acclaimed novella FIREHEART TIGER, published by Tor.com.

FIREHEART TIGER… is a delicate novella with threads of imperial politics, magical beings, queer romance and the psychology of trauma. It’s a bit of a miracle to feel as if you’ve read a six-book fantasy series in so few pages. This book is elegant and hypnotic as the flame of a candle, and I’ll be thinking for some time about the shadows it throws into relief.’ — New York Times Book Review

‘A fascinating story filled with strong female characters and lush prose, the relationships woven around Thanh evolve into themes of reclaiming the self and recognizing that love can hide the truth about people… a story of love, power, and what burns within. Highly recommended.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘De Bodard…, as she so often does, packs the world-building and emotional punch of an epic into a shockingly slim novella. This touching romance with the delicate negotiations of a small country’s survival against an imperial adversary would be a lovely place to start with de Bodard’s work, and fans will find more of what they’ve come to love about her stories.’ — Booklist

ICYMI: Aliette de Bodard at TorCon 2021!


In case you missed it, Aliette de Bodard took part in this year’s TorCon 2021! Specifically, the author contributed to the ‘Conjuring the Diaspora: Myths, Legends, and Classics Reimagined’ panel (which you can watch above), and also a ‘Cooking the Books’ segment (below).

Aliette’s latest book is FIREHEART TIGER, an acclaimed fantasy novella published by Tor.com. Here’s the synopsis…

Fire burns bright and has a long memory….

Quiet, thoughtful princess Thanh was sent away as a hostage to the powerful faraway country of Ephteria as a child. Now she’s returned to her mother’s imperial court, haunted not only by memories of her first romance, but by worrying magical echoes of a fire that devastated Ephteria’s royal palace.

Thanh’s new role as a diplomat places her once again in the path of her first love, the powerful and magnetic Eldris of Ephteria, who knows exactly what she wants: romance from Thanh and much more from Thanh’s home. Eldris won’t take no for an answer, on either front. But the fire that burned down one palace is tempting Thanh with the possibility of making her own dangerous decisions.

Can Thanh find the freedom to shape her country’s fate — and her own?

Here are just a handful of the reviews FIREHEART TIGER has received so far…

‘[A] high-stakes lesbian love triangle in this tightly plotted fantasy novella… convincingly combines sex, politics, and betrayal. This is an ideal pick for fantasy fans longing for non-European settings.’ — Publishers Weekly

FIREHEART TIGER… is a delicate novella with threads of imperial politics, magical beings, queer romance and the psychology of trauma. It’s a bit of a miracle to feel as if you’ve read a six-book fantasy series in so few pages. This book is elegant and hypnotic as the flame of a candle, and I’ll be thinking for some time about the shadows it throws into relief.’ — New York Times Book Review

‘A fascinating story filled with strong female characters and lush prose, the relationships woven around Thanh evolve into themes of reclaiming the self and recognizing that love can hide the truth about people… a story of love, power, and what burns within. Highly recommended.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘De Bodard…, as she so often does, packs the world-building and emotional punch of an epic into a shockingly slim novella. This touching romance with the delicate negotiations of a small country’s survival against an imperial adversary would be a lovely place to start with de Bodard’s work, and fans will find more of what they’ve come to love about her stories.’ — Booklist

ICYMI: THE BEST OF WORLD SF, Volume 1 Out Now in North America!


In case you missed it, THE BEST OF WORLD SF, VOLUME 1 is out now in North America! Published by Head of Zeus, the critically-acclaimed collection is edited by Lavie Tidhar, and contains 26 stories by authors from around the world. Here’s the synopsis…

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction.

The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time.

Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty.

In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all.

Here’s the table of contents:

  • ‘Immersion’ by Aliette de Bodard
  • ‘Debtless’ by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks)
  • ‘Fandom for Robots’ by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
  • ‘Virtual Snapshots’ by Tlotlo Tsamaase
  • ‘What The Dead Man Said’ by Chinelo Onwualu
  • ‘Delhi’ by Vandana Singh
  • ‘The Wheel of Samsara’ by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author)
  • ‘Xingzhou’ by Yi-Sheng Ng
  • ‘Prayer’ by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski)
  • ‘The Green Ship’ by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert)
  • ‘Eyes of the Crocodile’ by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei)
  • ‘Bootblack’ by Tade Thompson
  • ‘The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things’ by Fabio Fernandes
  • ‘The Sun From Both Sides’ by R.S.A. Garcia
  • ‘Dump’ by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood)
  • ‘Rue Chair’ by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author)
  • ‘His Master’s Voice’ by Hannu Rajaniemi
  • ‘Benjamin Schneider’s Little Greys’ by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar)
  • ‘The Cryptid’ by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author)
  • ‘The Bank of Burkina Faso’ by Ekaterina Sedia
  • ‘An Incomplete Guide…’ by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • ‘The Old Man with The Third Hand’ by Kofi Nyameye
  • ‘The Green’ by Lauren Beukes
  • ‘The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir’ by Karin Tidbeck
  • ‘Prime Meridian’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
  • ‘If At First You Don’t Succeed’ by Zen Cho

If you’d like to sample some of the anthology, check out the following links…

Here, too, are just a few of the great reviews the collection has received…

‘Rare and wonderful’The Times

‘This excellent anthology proves editor Tidhar’s assertion that science fiction should no longer be thought of as “white, male, and American” with 26 exemplary stories from 21 countries… Worthwhile both as a survey of international sci-fi and on a story-by-story level, this wonderful anthology should be a hit with any sci-fi fan.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘Vital and exciting, THE BEST OF WORLD SF blows the blast panels off the dusty, well-worn tropes of popular science fiction and lets in a dazzling burst of lunar light.’ — Foreword Review

‘There is not a poor story here… nice balance between light and harder stories… IMMERSION by Aliette de Bodard reads like hard Sci Fi but digs a little deeper… As a group, the stories on offer within THE BEST OF WORLD SF Volume 1 are so strong… This is a great introduction to what the rest of the world has to offer.’ — SF Book Reviews

‘Stories like these are the ones you sometimes want to foist upon readers who claim not to like SF, and The Best of World SF: Volume 1 reminds us that such stories can come from anywhere these days, if only we get to see them. I look forward to future volumes.’Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘In addition to being an award-winning sci-fi writer, Israeli-born UK-based Lavie Tidhar is also a tireless champion of international sci-fi… an excellent, lovingly curated collection that is also uniformly well translated.’ — Financial Times

‘Now this book exists, it feels absurd it didn’t exist sooner… hefty, beautifully presented collection… an excellent samples and delight in itself… fizzes with great ideas and wonderful writing.’SFX (5*)

‘[Tidhar] is really a pioneer… He was looking at writers from Malaysia, from Africa, from China, from Japan when no one was really doing that. You might get some stories here and there from other parts of the world. But the way that he constructed this global structure of science fiction and looked at science fiction not as a monoculture but as a vibrant sphere for people to speak from all over the world, and the promotion he gave that over the long term and pushing it on and on in an independent space, is exciting to see and inspiring.’Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Locus, Hugo, and Ignyte nominations for Aliette de Bodard!


In case you missed the great news: Aliette de Bodard has received four Locus Award nominations, a Hugo Award, and an Ignyte Award nomination! Let’s start with the Locus nominations…

Aliette’s has two novellas among the finalists in the Novella Category. OF DRAGONS, FEASTS AND MURDERS, published by JABberwocky, is a stand-alone story set in the same work as the Dominion of the Fallen series. Here’s the synopsis…

Lunar New Year should be a time for familial reunions, ancestor worship, and consumption of an unhealthy amount of candied fruit.

But when dragon prince Thuan brings home his brooding and ruthless husband Asmodeus for the New Year, they find not interminable family gatherings, but a corpse outside their quarters. Asmodeus is thrilled by the murder investigation; Thuan, who gets dragged into the political plotting he’d sworn off when he left, is less enthusiastic.

It’ll take all of Asmodeus’s skill with knives, and all of Thuan’s diplomacy, to navigate this one — as well as the troubled waters of their own relationship…

The Dominion of the Fallen series is published by Gollancz in the UK, and Roc Books and JABberwocky in North America. (While a stand-alone, this novella is set after the events of the third novel in that series, THE HOUSE OF SUNDERING FLAMES.)

The second finalist novella is SEVEN OF INFINITIES, one of the author’s many acclaimed Xuya stories, published by Subterranean Press (North America) and JABberwocky

Vân is a scholar from a poor background, eking out a living in the orbitals of the Scattered Pearls Belt as a tutor to a rich family, while hiding the illegal artificial mem-implant she manufactured as a student. 

Sunless Woods is a mindship — and not just any mindship, but a notorious thief and a master of disguise. She’s come to the Belt to retire, but is drawn to Vân’s resolute integrity.

When a mysterious corpse is found in the quarters of Vân’s student, Vân and Sunless Woods find themselves following a trail of greed and murder that will lead them from teahouses and ascetic havens to the wreck of a mindship — and to the devastating secrets they’ve kept from each other.

Aliette’s third Locus finalist nomination is for the short story IN THE LANDS OF THE SPILL, which was published in the AVATARS INC Sci-Fi Anthology, edited by Ann Vandermeer.

Meanwhile, the novelette THE INACCESSIBILITY OF HEAVEN has been nominated for three awards! Published in the July-August 2020 issue of Uncanny Magazine, it is up for the Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte Best Novelette Awards!

Night. A night like any other in Starhollow: the headlights of cars, small and lost between the skyscrapers; the smell of hydromel and wine wafting from those few bars still open; and above me, the distant light of the stars, a constant reminder of the inaccessibility of Heaven.

I climbed the stairs to my flat, exhausted, my arms covered in claw-marks. At the shelter I worked at, drunken Fallen had started attacking some of the newcomers—and had turned on me when I’d tried to intervene…

The Locus Awards winners will be announced June 26, 2021, during the virtual Locus Awards Weekend.

Voting for the Hugo Awards are open now to members, and will close on November 19th. The award winners will be announced during DisCon III, which will be held in Washington, D.C., between December 15th-19th.

Voting for the Ignyte Awards is open now to anyone who wants to vote, and will close on May 21st. The award winners will be announced on September 18th.

Many congratulations, Aliette!