We’re delighted to report that Aliette de Bodard, Brandon Sanderson and Marie Brennan are among this year’s Hugo Awards finalists! The winners of the awards will be announced at WorldCon 76 in San Jose, on August 19th.

First up, Aliette de Bodard’s CHILDREN OF THORNS, CHILDREN OF WATER has been nominated in the Best Novelette category. Part of the author’s critically-acclaimed, award-winning Dominion of the Fallen series, the story is available free — more details on where you can get it here. Here’s the synopsis…

In a Paris that never was, a city of magicians, alchemists and Fallen angels struggling to recover from a devastating magical war…

Once each year, the House of Hawthorn tests the Houseless: for those chosen, success means the difference between a safe life and the devastation of the streets. However, for Thuan and his friend Kim Cuc, — dragons in human shapes and envoys from the dying underwater kingdom of the Seine — the stakes are entirely different. Charged with infiltrating a House that keeps encroaching on the Seine, if they are caught, they face a painful death.

Worse, mysterious children of thorns stalk the candidates through Hawthorn’s corridors. Will Thuan and Kim Cuc survive and succeed?

The Dominion of the Fallen series novels, including the Nebula Award-winning THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS, and THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS — are published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Roc Books.

Secondly, Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive series has been nominated for Best Series. Currently comprised of three novels — THE WAY OF KINGS, WORDS OF RADIANCE and OATHBRINGER (more on the way) — the series is published in the UK by Gollancz. Here’s the synopsis for the first book…

According to mythology mankind used to live in The Tranquiline Halls. Heaven. But then the Voidbringers assaulted and captured heaven, casting out God and men. Men took root on Roshar, the world of storms. And the Voidbringers followed…

They came against man ten thousand times. To help them cope, the Almighty gave men powerful suits of armor and mystical weapons, known as Shardblades. Led by ten angelic Heralds and ten orders of knights known as Radiants, mankind finally won.

Or so the legends say. Today, the only remnants of those supposed battles are the Shardblades, the possession of which makes a man nearly invincible on the battlefield. The entire world is at war with itself — and has been for centuries since the Radiants turned against mankind. Kings strive to win more Shardblades, each secretly wishing to be the one who will finally unite all of mankind under a single throne.

On a world scoured down to the rock by terrifying hurricanes that blow through every few day a young spearman forced into the army of a Shardbearer, led to war against an enemy he doesn’t understand and doesn’t really want to fight.

What happened deep in mankind’s past?

Why did the Radiants turn against mankind, and what happened to the magic they used to wield?

Last but by no means least, Marie Brennan’s Memoirs of Lady Trent novels have been nominated in the Best Series category! Published in the UK by Titan Books, all five novels are out now: A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS, THE TROPIC OF SERPENTS, VOYAGE OF THE BASILISK, and WITHIN THE SANCTUARY OF WINGS. Here’s the synopsis for the first book…

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day. Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.

Zeno represents Brandon Sanderson and Marie Brennan in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.