Tag: Children of Water

Aliette de Bodard is among the BEST OF UNCANNY!

Posted on Tuesday, December 31st, 2019

To ring out the end of the year, we wanted to draw your attention to the BEST OF UNCANNY collection, which was recently published by Subterranean Press. Specifically, because it includes Aliette de Bodard‘s CHILDREN OF THORNS, CHILDREN OF WATER — a short story set in the author’s Dominion of the Fallen world! The story, which is set between the first and second novels in the series, was first published in Uncanny Magazine #17 (July-August 2017). 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 novels are THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS, THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS, and THE HOUSE OF SUNDERING FLAMES. They are published by Gollancz in the UK, and Roc Books (#1-2) and JABberwocky (#3).

The short story was also available as a pre-order reward from the author before THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS was published. Here is the cover for that version…

Here are just a few of the reviews the series has received so far…

‘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) on THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS

‘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) on THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS

‘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) on THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS

‘De Bodard’s writing is very precise, like a well-oiled machine. The tempo is piston perfect, with the prose style having a strong and steady rhythm throughout. The emotional journey is relatively predictable (especially when we get into a marriage sequence), but the narrative is not. In other words, you can pretty much tell that the big emotions are coming, but the how and the why is what keeps you on edge. This is not a villains book; this is a powerful sequel that shows us that the incredibly complex world of the last novel is even more involved than we first expected. Strong stuff which you won’t stop reading till the end.’ — Starburst on THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS

‘The author spins a tale that’s rich, emotional and gripping, and delivers that rare thing: a superior sequel… This is an incredibly rich novel. Even as the scheming, double-crossing and action set pieces unfold, the author never loses sight of the people whose lives are on the line… There’s just so much going on here: social commentary, myths and fairytales that often feel under-represented in genre fiction, a gripping genre adventure and an affecting love story. The author has gone from strength to strength and we can’t wait for this story to continue.’ — SciFi Now (5/5*) on THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS

‘Truly beautifully balanced: between new and old, birth and death, beauty and ugliness, inside and outside, beginning and, yes, ending. It walks the line, and walks it fine.’ — Tor.com on THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS

‘If you’ve loved the previous entries in this series, consider it a must read. If you haven’t, know that it delivers an intoxicating blend of gothic mystery, apocalyptic fantasy, and Vietnamese myth—meaty, singular, and satisfying.’ — B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog on THE HOUSE OF SUNDERING FLAMES

Zeno clients among the 2018 Locus Awards Finalists!

Posted on Wednesday, May 9th, 2018

It’s that time of year again: the Locus Award Finalists have been announced! We’re very happy to report that a number of our clients and their work appear in the various categories. Here are the details…

Ian McDonald‘s LUNA: WOLF MOON is a finalist for Best Science Fiction Novel. Published by Tor Books in the US and Gollancz in the UK, here’s the synopsis…

A Dragon is dead.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered. Eighteen months have passed .

The remaining Helio children, Lucasinho and Luna, are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs, while Robson, still reeling from witnessing his parent’s violent deaths, is now a ward — virtually a hostage — of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished of the surface of the moon.

Only Lady Sun, dowager of Taiyang, suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and more to the point — that he is still a major player in the game. After all, Lucas always was the Schemer, and even in death, he would go to any lengths to take back everything and build a new Corta Helio, more powerful than before. But Corta Helio needs allies, and to find them, the fleeing son undertakes an audacious, impossible journey — to Earth.

In an unstable lunar environment, the shifting loyalties and political machinations of each family reach the zenith of their most fertile plots as outright war erupts.

Aliette de Bodard‘s THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS is among the finalists for Best Fantasy Novel. Published in the US by Roc Books and in the UK by Gollancz, here’s the synopsis…

Paris endures the aftermath of a devastating arcane war…

As the city rebuilds from the onslaught of sorcery that nearly destroyed it, the great Houses of Paris, ruled by Fallen angels, still contest one another for control over the capital.

House Silverspires was once the most powerful, but just as it sought to rise again, an ancient evil brought it low. Phillippe, an immortal who escaped the carnage, has a singular goal — to resurrect someone he lost. But the cost of such magic might be more than he can bear.

In House Hawthorn, Madeleine the alchemist has had her addiction to angel essence savagely broken. Struggling to live on, she is forced on a perilous diplomatic mission to the underwater dragon kingdom — and finds herself in the midst of intrigues that have already caused one previous emissary to mysteriously disappear…

As the Houses seek a peace more devastating than war, those caught between new fears and old hatreds must find strength — or fall prey to a magic that seeks to bind all to its will.

Aliette’s CHILDREN OF THORNS, CHILDREN OF WATER, a novelette set in the same Dominion of the Fallen series as the above novel, is also nominated for Best Novelette. You can read the story here.

Ian R. MacLeod‘s RED SNOW, published by PS Publishing, is a finalist for Best Horror Novel. Here’s the synopsis…

In the aftermath of the last great battle of the American Civil War, a disillusioned Union medic stumbles across a strange figure picking amid the corpses, and his life is changed forever…

In the cathedral city of Strasbourg in the years before the French Revolution, a church restorer is commissioned to paint a series of portraits that chart the changing appearance of a beautiful woman over the course of her life, although the woman herself seems ageless…

In Prohibition-era New York, an idealistic young Marxist is catapulted into the realms of elite society, and forced to assume the identity of someone who never existed…

Red Snow is a novel of love and violence, ideas and dreams, and revolves around the mystery of a monster drawn from humanity’s darkest myths which still somehow survives, and thrives, and kills, in this modern age.

Winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 22-24, 2018.

Aliette de Bodard, Brandon Sanderson and Marie Brennan are Hugo Awards Finalists!

Posted on Friday, April 13th, 2018

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.

Who wants a new Dominion of the Fallen novella…?

Posted on Monday, February 20th, 2017

Above you can see the striking cover for Aliette de Bodard‘s CHILDREN OF THORNS, CHILDREN OF WATER. It’s a prequel novella to THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS. 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?

Gollancz are offering the novella free, if you pre-order THE HOUSE OF BINDING THORNS. You can find details on how, as well as a piece by Aliette on the design of the cover, here.

The first novel in the series, THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS is published by Gollancz in the UK, and Roc Books in the US. THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS will be published in the UK on April 6th, 2017; and in the US on April 4th, 2017.

The second novel has already started to receive praise, including this Starred review from Publishers Weekly…

‘Meddling gleefully in the affairs of devils and dragons, this affective sequel to 2015’s THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS touches the heart as often as it cuts throats… Having fully crafted her world, de Bodard is now completely in control: she can move swiftly from gentle poetic touches to bloody Grand Guignol gestures, and she sure-handedly holds the reader by exposing the vulnerabilities and needs that drive even the seemingly all-powerful figures of rebel angels and ancient serpents to surrender to a higher collective power. In this world lacking signs of heaven, redemptions are painful but possible.’

We expect many more great reviews in the very near future. THE HOUSE OF SHATTERED WINGS was also showered in praise. Here’s a small selection…

‘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… 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

‘… strikingly original… heavily character-driven… remarkably evocative use of setting… an urban fantasy in the original and quite literal sense of that term… In the end, de Bodard manages to weave together the backstories and fates of the various characters (of whom the most appealing is Isabelle, as she learns to cope with a life among the Fallen) into a novel that is both haunting and original, its sense of loss almost palpable, and its setting not quite like anything else in modern fantasy.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)