Tag: Tea Master and the Detective

Aliette de Bodard’s HISTORIAS DE XUYA is Out Now!

Posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2022

Today, Red Key Books publish HISTORIAS DE XUYA, a Spanish collection of Aliette de Bodard‘s Xuya novellas LA MAESTRA DEL TÉ Y LA INVESTIGADORA (THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE) and SEVEN OF INFINITIES!

La maestra del té y la investigadora + Seven of Infinities, de Aliette de Bodard

Dos novelas cortas de la afamada escritora Aliette de Bodard llegan juntas en unos meses: La maestra del té y la investigadora y Seven of infinities.

Son dos novelas muy reconocidas y valoradas, con las que Aliette nos abre la puerta de manera magistral a su Universo Xuya. Ciencia ficción, investigación, un futuro alternativo, sugerentes ideas, una trama elaborada… Pocos adjetivos son para estas dos obras. Hablaremos de ellas más adelante. Pero si queréis ir conociendo a esta autora y a su obra, os invitamos a pasaros por el programa en el que Leticia Lara, quien podemos considerar la entrevistadora oficial de Aliette de Bodard en España, nos acompaña en nuestro programa vigésimo quinto para ilustrarnos sobre ella.

If you’d like to learn more about the books, check out an episode of the Red Key Books podcast, here.

Both THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE and SEVEN OF INFINITIES are available in English, published by Subterranean Press and JABberwocky. Here’s the synopsis for THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE, which won the British Fantasy and Nebula Awards for Best Novella (2019)…

Once, the mindship known as The Shadow’s Child was a military transport. Once, she leapt effortlessly between stars and planets, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken.

Now the war is over, and The Shadow’s Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment.

But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past–and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life…

And the synopsis for SEVEN OF INFINITIES, which was a finalist for the Locus Best Novella Award (2021)…

On a string of orbitals called the Scattered Pearls Belt lives Sunless Woods—sentient spaceship, master of disguise, and master thief who chafes against the obscurity that comes with her retirement. There, too, lives Vân, a poor scholar with little confidence but plenty of heart, and whose income comes from tutoring a wealthy student.

Their lives are turned upside down when Vân finds a corpse in her student’s quarters and Sunless Woods, intrigued by Vân’s sense of justice, offers her help. Scholar and spaceship must chase the mystery around the empire’s forgotten edge: from rundown teahouses to ascetic havens, and even in the wreck of a spaceship—and all the while, they begin to fall for each other in earnest. But the secrets they’ve kept from each other are large and devastating—will they and their love survive the revelations?

Coming Soon: HISTORIAS DE XUYA by Aliette de Bodard!

Posted on Friday, September 30th, 2022

Announced a little while ago, Red Key Books are due to publish a Spanish edition of Aliette de Bodard‘s Xuya novellas! HISTORIAS DE XUYA will include LA MAESTRA DEL TÉ Y LA INVESTIGADORA (THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE) and SEVEN OF INFINITIES!

La maestra del té y la investigadora + Seven of Infinities, de Aliette de Bodard

Dos novelas cortas de la afamada escritora Aliette de Bodard llegan juntas en unos meses: La maestra del té y la investigadora y Seven of infinities.

Son dos novelas muy reconocidas y valoradas, con las que Aliette nos abre la puerta de manera magistral a su Universo Xuya. Ciencia ficción, investigación, un futuro alternativo, sugerentes ideas, una trama elaborada… Pocos adjetivos son para estas dos obras. Hablaremos de ellas más adelante. Pero si queréis ir conociendo a esta autora y a su obra, os invitamos a pasaros por el programa en el que Leticia Lara, quien podemos considerar la entrevistadora oficial de Aliette de Bodard en España, nos acompaña en nuestro programa vigésimo quinto para ilustrarnos sobre ella.

If you’d like to learn more about the books, check out an episode of the Red Key Books podcast, here.

Both THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE and SEVEN OF INFINITIES are available in English, published by Subterranean Press and JABberwocky. Here’s the synopsis for THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE, which won the British Fantasy and Nebula Awards for Best Novella (2019)…

Once, the mindship known as The Shadow’s Child was a military transport. Once, she leapt effortlessly between stars and planets, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken.

Now the war is over, and The Shadow’s Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment.

But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past–and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life…

And the synopsis for SEVEN OF INFINITIES, which was a finalist for the Locus Best Novella Award (2021)…

On a string of orbitals called the Scattered Pearls Belt lives Sunless Woods—sentient spaceship, master of disguise, and master thief who chafes against the obscurity that comes with her retirement. There, too, lives Vân, a poor scholar with little confidence but plenty of heart, and whose income comes from tutoring a wealthy student.

Their lives are turned upside down when Vân finds a corpse in her student’s quarters and Sunless Woods, intrigued by Vân’s sense of justice, offers her help. Scholar and spaceship must chase the mystery around the empire’s forgotten edge: from rundown teahouses to ascetic havens, and even in the wreck of a spaceship—and all the while, they begin to fall for each other in earnest. But the secrets they’ve kept from each other are large and devastating—will they and their love survive the revelations?

TEA AND MURDER in the USA!

Posted on Tuesday, May 11th, 2021

TEA AND MURDER — the audio omnibus of Aliette de Bodard‘s THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS and THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE — is out now in North America! Published by Skyboat Media, here’s the synopsis…

Two novellas set in Aliette de Bodard’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant, and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration

THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls was a great wonder; a perfect meld between cutting-edge technology and esoteric sciences—its inhabitants capable of teleporting themselves anywhere, its weapons small and undetectable and deadly. Thirty years ago, threatened by an invading fleet from the Dai Viet Empire, the Citadel disappeared and was never seen again. But now the empire itself is under siege, on the verge of a war against an enemy that turns their own mindships against them; and the Empress, who once gave the order to raze the Citadel, is in desperate need of its weapons.

Meanwhile, on a small isolated space station, an engineer obsessed with the past works on a machine that will send her thirty years back, to the height of the Citadel’s power. But the Citadel’s disappearance still extends chains of grief and regret all the way into the fraught atmosphere of the Imperial Court; and this casual summoning of the past might have world-shattering consequences.

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past—and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars.

TEA AND MURDER is also available in the UK, also published by Skyboat. THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS is published in print and eBook by JABberwocky; THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is available in print and eBook via Subterranean Press (North America) and JABberwocky (UK).

Here are just a few reviews that the books have received so far…

‘A beautifully written, bittersweet mystery in a wonderfully imaginative space setting.’ — Fantasy Literature on THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS

‘This slim volume packs a visceral punch. Absorbing prose takes the reader in the dark, frigid space between the stars, where ships can fail, physically and emotionally, as well as people… An imaginative read.’ — Library Journal (starred review) on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘[A] well-imagined alternate future history… I’ve read several linked Xuya Universe stories over the years and I’ve enjoyed them all. Not only are they an imaginative vision of a possible future, but the stories often resonate on a human level. How could those stories possibly get any better? De Bodard found a way: by fusing this culturally rich future with a Sherlock Holmes detective story… This futuristic Holmes and Watson story is as compelling as the finely detailed universe in which it unfolds, but the novella’s real triumph is that it makes the reader crave more even before setting the stage for further mysteries.’ — Kirkus

Aliette de Bodard’s TEA & MURDER also out today!

Posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2021

Wait, there’s another new Aliette de Bodard release today! TEA AND MURDER is a new audiobook collection featuring two of the author’s acclaimed Xuya novellas: THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS and THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE! Published by Blackstone/Skyboat Media, here’s the synopsis…

Two novellas set in Aliette de Bodard’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration.

THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls was a great wonder; a perfect meld between cutting-edge technology and esoteric sciences — its inhabitants capable of teleporting themselves anywhere, its weapons small and undetectable and deadly. Thirty years ago, threatened by an invading fleet from the Dai Viet Empire, the Citadel disappeared and was never seen again. But now the empire itself is under siege, on the verge of a war against an enemy that turns their own mindships against them; and the Empress, who once gave the order to raze the Citadel, is in desperate need of its weapons. 

Meanwhile, on a small isolated space station, an engineer obsessed with the past works on a machine that will send her 30 years back, to the height of the Citadel’s power. But the Citadel’s disappearance still extends chains of grief and regret all the way into the fraught atmosphere of the Imperial Court; and this casual summoning of the past might have world-shattering consequences.

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood. 

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow’s Child with her. 

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars.

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

Here are just a few of the great reviews the two novellas have received so far…

A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘This slim volume packs a visceral punch. Absorbing prose pulls readers into the dark, frigid space between stars, where ships can fail, physically and emotionally, as easily as people… this novella offers sf fans an imaginative read.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review) on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘De Bodard’s world building glitters, and her characters are deeply compelling… It becomes clear early on that THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is strongly influenced by, if not directly based upon, the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s measured, almost stately, up until the conclusion, where the tension explodes into high gear. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s cut-glass prose and inimitable modern style. This is a really satisfying story, deeply invested in choosing to do the right thing – and in the importance of kindness. I strongly recommend it.’ — Locus (Liz Bourke)

‘[A] window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.’ — New York Times on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘… a beautifully written, bittersweet mystery in a wonderfully imaginative space setting. Readers who are patient and attentive will be amply rewarded by reading this novella.’ — Fantasy Literature on THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS

Next Week: TEA & MURDER by Aliette de Bodard!

Posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2021

Aliette de Bodard has a new audiobook out next week! TEA AND MURDER is a collection featuring two of the author’s acclaimed Xuya novellas: THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS and THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE! Published by Blackstone/Skyboat Media, here’s the synopsis…

Two novellas set in Aliette de Bodard’s award-winning, critically acclaimed Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant and where the space age has Confucian galactic empires of Vietnamese and Chinese inspiration.

THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS

The Citadel of Weeping Pearls was a great wonder; a perfect meld between cutting-edge technology and esoteric sciences — its inhabitants capable of teleporting themselves anywhere, its weapons small and undetectable and deadly. Thirty years ago, threatened by an invading fleet from the Dai Viet Empire, the Citadel disappeared and was never seen again. But now the empire itself is under siege, on the verge of a war against an enemy that turns their own mindships against them; and the Empress, who once gave the order to raze the Citadel, is in desperate need of its weapons. 

Meanwhile, on a small isolated space station, an engineer obsessed with the past works on a machine that will send her 30 years back, to the height of the Citadel’s power. But the Citadel’s disappearance still extends chains of grief and regret all the way into the fraught atmosphere of the Imperial Court; and this casual summoning of the past might have world-shattering consequences.

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood. 

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow’s Child with her. 

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars.

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

Here are just a few of the great reviews the two novellas have received so far…

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘This slim volume packs a visceral punch. Absorbing prose pulls readers into the dark, frigid space between stars, where ships can fail, physically and emotionally, as easily as people… this novella offers sf fans an imaginative read.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review) on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘De Bodard’s world building glitters, and her characters are deeply compelling… It becomes clear early on that THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is strongly influenced by, if not directly based upon, the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s measured, almost stately, up until the conclusion, where the tension explodes into high gear. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s cut-glass prose and inimitable modern style. This is a really satisfying story, deeply invested in choosing to do the right thing – and in the importance of kindness. I strongly recommend it.’ — Locus (Liz Bourke)

‘[A] window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.’ — New York Times on THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE

‘… a beautifully written, bittersweet mystery in a wonderfully imaginative space setting. Readers who are patient and attentive will be amply rewarded by reading this novella.’ — Fantasy Literature on THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS

Coming Soon: New Catalan Edition of THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE by Aliette de Bodard

Posted on Friday, June 5th, 2020

LA MESTRA DEL TE I LA INVESTIGADORA, a new Catalan edition of Aliette de Bodard‘s critically-acclaimed and award-winning THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is due to be published by Mai Més in Spain very soon!

The exact publication date is still being firmed up, but we expect the book to be published in the very near future. We’ll share more details as soon as we have them.

The novella, set in de Bodard’s award-nominated Xuya sci-fi universe, is published in North America by Subterranean Press, and in the UK and elsewhere by JABberwocky. Here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

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

‘This isn’t a tidy transposition of Holmes and Watson into far-future space, for all that the elements of homage (Long Chau is an abrasive self-medicating ‘consulting detective’) shine through. The Shadow’s Child is a fully realized character in her own right, and the dislike she feels for Long Chau is sustained and justified. Instead it’s a window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.‘ — New York Times

‘This slim volume packs a visceral punch. Absorbing prose pulls readers into the dark, frigid space between stars, where ships can fail, physically and emotionally, as easily as people… Set in de Bodard’s ‘Xuya’ universe (The Waiting Stars), this novella offers sf fans an imaginative read.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘…De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘This futuristic Holmes and Watson story is as compelling as the finely detailed universe in which it unfolds, but the novella’s real triumph is that it makes the reader crave more even before setting the stage for further mysteries.’ — Kirkus

‘A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

Lavie Tidhar & Aliette de Bodard Nominated for Seiun Awards!

Posted on Friday, May 15th, 2020

Announced late last week, we are very happy to share the news that Lavie Tidhar and Aliette de Bodard have been nominated for Seiun Awards in Japan!

In the Best Translated Novel category, we have Lavie’s A MAN LIES DREAMING. Published in Japan by 竹書房 (Takeshobo), as 黒き微睡みの囚人, here’s the synopsis…

The novel won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Award when it was first published in the UK. It was recently re-issued as an eBook by JABberwocky, with a cover by Sarah Anne Langton (above). Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world – a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

Aliette’s ‘Memorials‘ is nominated in the Best Translated Story category. Available in Japan as part of the Xuya anthology, 茶匠と探偵, published by 竹書房. Here’s the synopsis for the collection…

星々は語らない。淡く見えるとも強く輝く――

探偵と元軍艦の宇宙船がコンビを組み深宇宙（ディープ・スペーシズ）での事件を解決する表題作の他、異文化に適応しようとした女性が偽りの自分に飲み込まれる「包嚢」、宇宙船を身籠った女性と船の設計士の交流を描く「船を造る者たち」、少女がおとぎ話の真実を知る「竜が太陽から飛びだす時」。

“アジアの宇宙”であるシュヤ宇宙を舞台に紡ぐ全9篇。
現代SFの最前線に立つ作家、日本初の短篇集。

【収録作品一覧】
「蝶々、黎明に墜ちて」（“Butterfly, Falling at Dawn”）
「船を造る者たち」（“The Shipmaker”）
「包嚢」（“Immersion”）
「星々は待っている」（“The Waiting Stars”）
「形見」（“Memorials”）
「哀しみの杯三つ、星明かりのもとで」（“Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight”）
「魂魄回収」（“A Salvaging of Ghosts”）
「竜の太陽から飛びだす時」（“The Dragon That Flew Out of the Sun”）
「茶匠と探偵」（“The Tea Master and the Detective”）

The stories included in 茶匠と探偵 are available in English in THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE and OF WARS, AND MEMORIES, AND STARLIGHT — both published by Subterranean Press. The former is also available in the UK, published by JABberwocky.

Here’s the synopsis for OF WARS, AND MEMORIES, AND STARLIGHT…

A major first collection from a writer fast becoming one of the stars of the genre… Aliette de Bodard, multiple award winner and author of The Tea Master and the Detective, now brings readers fourteen dazzling tales that showcase the richly textured worldbuilding and beloved characters that have brought her so much acclaim.

Come discover the breadth and endless invention of her universes, ranging from a dark Gothic Paris devastated by a magical war; to the multiple award-winning Xuya, a far-future space opera inspired by Vietnamese culture where scholars administrate planets and sentient spaceships are part of families.

In the Nebula award and Locus award winning “Immersion”, a young girl working in a restaurant on a colonized space station crosses paths with an older woman who has cast off her own identity. In the novelette “Children of Thorns, Children of Water”, a shapeshifting dragon infiltrating a ruined mansion finds more than he’s bargained for when his partner is snatched by eerie, child-like creatures. And in the award-winning “Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight”, three very different people — a scholar, an engineer, and a spaceship — all must deal with the loss of a woman who was the cornerstone of their world.   

This collection includes a never-before seen 20,000-word novella, “Of Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness”, set in Bodard’s alternative dark Paris.

The Seiun Awards were originally planned to be presented at F-CON, the 59th Japan SF Convention, scheduled for August 22-23, 2020 in Fukushima prefecture. However, the convention has now been postponed until March 13-14, 2021.

Congratulations to Lavie and Aliette! Both very well-deserved nominations and we have our fingers crossed!

Aliette de Bodard’s Xuya Anthology, 茶匠と探偵 out tomorrow in Japan!

Posted on Wednesday, November 27th, 2019

Above you can see the gorgeous cover artwork that graces a new Japanese anthology of Aliette de Bodard‘s acclaimed, award-winning Xuya fiction. The cover’s artwork is by Kou Takano, and the design is by Koichi Sakano.

茶匠と探偵 is due to be published tomorrow by 竹書房 (Takeshobo), here’s the synopsis…

星々は語らない。淡く見えるとも強く輝く――

探偵と元軍艦の宇宙船がコンビを組み深宇宙（ディープ・スペーシズ）での事件を解決する表題作の他、異文化に適応しようとした女性が偽りの自分に飲み込まれる「包嚢」、宇宙船を身籠った女性と船の設計士の交流を描く「船を造る者たち」、少女がおとぎ話の真実を知る「竜が太陽から飛びだす時」。

“アジアの宇宙”であるシュヤ宇宙を舞台に紡ぐ全9篇。
現代SFの最前線に立つ作家、日本初の短篇集。

【収録作品一覧】
「蝶々、黎明に墜ちて」（“Butterfly, Falling at Dawn”）
「船を造る者たち」（“The Shipmaker”）
「包嚢」（“Immersion”）
「星々は待っている」（“The Waiting Stars”）
「形見」（“Memorials”）
「哀しみの杯三つ、星明かりのもとで」（“Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight”）
「魂魄回収」（“A Salvaging of Ghosts”）
「竜の太陽から飛びだす時」（“The Dragon That Flew Out of the Sun”）
「茶匠と探偵」（“The Tea Master and the Detective”）

As you can see, the synopsis includes a contents list. The book’s translator is Yutaka Ohshima.

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is published in North America by Subterranean Press, and in the UK and elsewhere by JABberwocky. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The  Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

Subterranean Press has also recently published a collection of Aliette’s short fiction — OF WARS, AND MEMORIES, AND STARLIGHT — which includes six of the stories included in 茶匠と探偵. Here’s the synopsis for the anthology…

A major first collection from a writer fast becoming one of the stars of the genre… Aliette de Bodard, multiple award winner and author of The Tea Master and the Detective, now brings readers fourteen dazzling tales that showcase the richly textured worldbuilding and beloved characters that have brought her so much acclaim.

Come discover the breadth and endless invention of her universes, ranging from a dark Gothic Paris devastated by a magical war; to the multiple award-winning Xuya, a far-future space opera inspired by Vietnamese culture where scholars administrate planets and sentient spaceships are part of families.

In the Nebula award and Locus award winning “Immersion”, a young girl working in a restaurant on a colonized space station crosses paths with an older woman who has cast off her own identity. In the novelette “Children of Thorns, Children of Water”, a shapeshifting dragon infiltrating a ruined mansion finds more than he’s bargained for when his partner is snatched by eerie, child-like creatures. And in the award-winning “Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight”, three very different people — a scholar, an engineer, and a spaceship — all must deal with the loss of a woman who was the cornerstone of their world.

The TEA MASTER, THE DETECTIVE, and the British Fantasy Award!

Posted on Thursday, October 24th, 2019

We’re delighted to share the news (in case you missed it) that Aliette de Bodard has won a British Fantasy Award for her novella THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE! A wholly deserved win for a novella that continues to receive glowing reviews quite some time since it was first published. Indeed, it also won a Nebula Award for Best Novella and was nominated in the same category for the Hugo and Locus Awards.

Originally published by Subterranean Press as a limited edition hardcover, it is still available as an eBook via Subterranean Press (North America) and JABberwocky’s eBook Program (English language elsewhere). Here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The  Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past–and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is set in the author’s award-nominated Xuya Universe. Her latest publication with Subterranean Press is OF WAR, AND MEMORIES, AND STARLIGHT.

Aliette is also the author of the acclaimed, award-winning Dominion of the Fallen series, published by Gollancz in the UK, and Roc Books (#1-2) and JABberwocky (#3) in North America.

More Award Nominations for Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar, and Anne Griffin!

Posted on Tuesday, August 6th, 2019

As award season rapidly approaches, we’re very happy to report that Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar, and Anne Griffin have picked up a couple more nominations!

First up, Aliette’s THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella! This critically-acclaimed novella is published by Subterranean Press (US) and via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The  Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realizes that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

The novella is set in de Bodard’s Hugo Award-nominated Xuya Universe. The novella also won a Nebula Award, and was nominated for both a Locus Award and a Hugo Award.

The World FAntasy Awards will be presents at the World Fantasy Convention in Los Angeles, between October 31st-November 3rd, 2019.

Secondly, Lavie’s short story BAG MAN has been nominated for the CWA Short Story Dagger! The Crime Writers’ Association awards (“daggers”) are given to the best crime writing in the various categories. BAG MAN appears in THE OUTCAST HOURS — an anthology edited by Mahvesh Murad and Jared Shurin, published by Solaris…

These are the stories of people who live at night: under neon and starlight, and never the light of the sun.

These are the stories of poets and police, tourists and traders; the hidden and the forbidden; the lonely and the lovers. 

This is their time.

The CWA Dagger winners will be announced at the Dagger Award ceremony at the Grange City Hotel, London, on 24th October, 2019.

Anne Griffin‘s sensational debut novel, WHEN ALL IS SAID, has been nominated for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival First Book Award, and has also appeared on the Not the Booker Longlist! Published by Sceptre in the UK and St. Martin’s Press in North America, Here’s the synopsis…

Five toasts. Five people. One lifetime.

‘I’m here to remember – all that I have been and all that I will never be again.’

At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual -though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story.

Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories – of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice – the life of one man will be powerfully and poignantly laid bare.

Heart-breaking and heart-warming all at once, the voice of Maurice Hannigan will stay with you long after all is said.

You can read an interview with Anne over on the Caledonian Novel Award page.

THE TEA MASTER, THE DETECTIVE and the Nebula Award!

Posted on Sunday, May 19th, 2019

We are delighted to report that Aliette de Bodard has won a Nebula Award for her novella THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE! The winners were announced yesterday at the Nebula Conference and Awards in Los Angeles.

The novella is published in North America by Subterranean Press, and elsewhere via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The  Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past–and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

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

‘A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘De Bodard’s world building glitters, and her characters are deeply compelling… It becomes clear early on that THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is strongly influenced by, if not directly based upon, the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s measured, almost stately, up until the conclusion, where the tension explodes into high gear. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s cut-glass prose and inimitable modern style. This is a really satisfying story, deeply invested in choosing to do the right thing – and in the importance of kindness. I strongly recommend it.’ — Locus (Liz Bourke)

‘[A] delicate, gender-bent recasting of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in the far future of her Xuya universe, the gorgeously mannered space opera setting of celebrated novellas… a window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.’ — New York Times

So, once again: Congratulations, Aliette!

Aaronovitch, de Bodard, McDonald & Tidhar are Locus Award Finalists!

Posted on Wednesday, May 8th, 2019

Yesterday, the finalists for this year’s Locus Awards were announced, and we’re very happy to report that four of our clients are among them! Winners of the awards will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend, to be held in Seattle, June 28th-30th. Here are the details…

In the Best Sci-Fi Novel category: UNHOLY LAND by Lavie Tidhar. Published by Tachyon Publications, here’s the synopsis…

Lior Tirosh is a semi-successful author of pulp fiction, an inadvertent time traveler, and an ongoing source of disappointment to his father.

Tirosh has returned to his homeland in East Africa. But Palestina — a Jewish state founded in the early 20th century — has grown dangerous. The government is building a vast border wall to keep out African refugees. Unrest in Ararat City is growing. And Tirosh’s childhood friend, trying to deliver a warning, has turned up dead in his hotel room. A state security officer has identified Tirosh as a suspect in a string of murders, and a rogue agent is stalking Tirosh through transdimensional rifts — possible futures that can only be prevented by avoiding the mistakes of the past.

UNHOLY LAND has racked up an impressive range of commendations and nominations since its release. Here, too, are just a few of the great reviews…

‘… will leave readers’ heads spinning with this disorienting and gripping alternate history… Readers of all kinds, and particularly fans of detective stories and puzzles, will enjoy grappling with the numerous questions raised by this stellar work.’ — Publishers Weekly (PW Picks: Books of the Week, October 15, 2018)

‘Lavie Tidhar is a genius at conjuring realities that are just two steps to the left of our own — places that look and smell and feel real, if just a bit hauntingly alien. UNHOLY LAND develops slowly. It begins with banal strangeness (this Palestinia, so like and unlike modern-day Israel) and leans gently into it… This is a story that gets weirder the deeper you get into it; that cultivates strangeness like something precious. It has three narrators: Investigator Bloom, Tirosh and a woman, Nur, who works as a field agent for the Border Agency. There are echoes of Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union in it, wild strains of P.K. Dick and Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. But UNHOLY LAND is its own thing. Something that no one but Tidhar could’ve written. Gorgeous in its alienness, comfortingly gray in its banality, and disquieting throughout.’ — NPR

‘[O]ne of those lovely books that starts out presenting itself as one thing, and mutates into another almost without you seeing it… a game-player of a writer who uses the spectrum of science fiction canon for his pieces… a grand game of alternate worlds cast like jewels on the sand. The long second act is all dust and blood and madness and glory, and the fast third act comes down on you like a sharpened spade… Lavie Tidhar is a clever bastard, and this book is a box of little miracles.’ — Warren Ellis

In the Best Fantasy Novel category: LIES SLEEPING by Ben Aaronovitch. Published by Gollancz in the UK and DAW Books in North America, here’s the synopsis…

Martin Chorley, aka the Faceless Man, wanted for multiple counts of murder, fraud and crimes against humanity, has been unmasked and is on the run.

Peter Grant, Detective Constable and apprentice wizard, now plays a key role in an unprecedented joint operation to bring Chorley to justice.

But even as the unwieldy might of the Metropolitan Police bears down on its foe, Peter uncovers clues that Chorley, far from being finished, is executing the final stages of a long term plan.

A plan that has its roots in London’s two thousand bloody years of history, and could literally bring the city to its knees.

To save his beloved city Peter’s going to need help from his former best friend and colleague – Lesley May – who brutally betrayed him and everything he thought she believed in. And, far worse, he might even have to come to terms with the malevolent supernatural killer and agent of chaos known as Mr Punch…

As with all of Ben’s Peter Grant novels, LIES SLEEPING was met with a veritable tsunami of praise. Here’s just a taste…

‘[F]unny… laugh-out-loud prose… fans will delight in this outing.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘[R]ecounted with deadpan British wit and irony… packed with fascinating historical detail… Lively and amusing and different.’ — Kirkus

‘Peter Grant’s London has depth, breadth, and a complex array of recurring characters, and every one of the novels can be relied on to start with a bang… Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant has a distinctive voice, one that makes even the bureaucracy of regular police work engaging and compelling… Aaronovitch writes a tense, compelling police procedural with magic. As usual, Grant’s voice is striking, and the action gripping and intense.’ — Tor.com

There are two Zeno clients in the Best Novella category: First, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE by Aliette de Bodard, published by Subterranean Press in North America and JABberwocky elsewhere in English, here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The  Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

Set in Aliette’s Hugo Award-nominated Xuya universe, this novella was praise far and wide upon release (and continues to receive many great reviews)…

‘[A] delicate, gender-bent recasting of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in the far future of her Xuya universe, the gorgeously mannered space opera setting of celebrated novellas… a window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.’ — New York Times

‘A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

Second: TIME WAS by Ian McDonald. Published by Tor.com, here’s the synopsis…

A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books, and ultimately destroyed by it.

In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found.

Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their desperate timelines overlap.

As with the other titles mentioned above, Ian’s novella has been met with widespread praise. As reported in February, the novella has also been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award! Here are just a few of the reviews the book has received since release…

‘[E]ntrances readers with this multigenerational novella of two time-crossed lovers who can only meet for brief moments separated by several years… beautiful writing… Fans of science fiction who enjoy a dash of history and legend will savor this tender story.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘This slender, poignant queer romance incorporates time travel and hints of hard science into a story as devastatingly sad—which isn’t to say bleak—as anything you’ll read this year.’ — B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog (Best SFF Books of the Year So Far, 2018, Honourable Mention)

‘TIME WAS… a peculiar story of time, mystery, books, love, and war, compact as a parable, layered like a complex metaphor… and in some ways, strikingly unsettling… very well put together, and gorgeously written.’ — Tor.com

‘Throughout his career, Ian McDonald has demon­strated a remarkable versatility of style and language. His recent fiction has ranged from the YA sense-of-wonder exuberance of his parallel-world Everness series to the efficient social melodrama narration of the Luna novels, but he’s always been equally capable of great lyricism, and his new novella, TIME WAS, is a persuasive and gorgeous example of it. Essentially a timeslip romance in which the romance is evoked not by dramatic clinches but by a heightened sensuality, an acute awareness of nature, and a haunting sense of imminent loss, it nevertheless introduces enough chatter about quan­tum indeterminacy to work as SF. In a fascinating way, the two “time-crossed lovers,” Ben and Tom, come to represent the dual aesthetic of any good SF romance: Ben is a physicist working on a complex new experiment with his “Uncertainty Squad,” while Tom is a poet and part-time amateur actor who, when we meet him, is working for the Signal Corps. Early on, Ben confesses that he doesn’t have the soul of a poet, and Tom admits he doesn’t “have the soul of a scientist,” but, as McDonald well knows, you need both to tell a story like this… one of the most purely beautiful pieces of writing McDonald has given us in years.’ — Gary K. Wolfe (Locus)

 

Congrats to Lavie, Ben, Aliette and Ian on their very-well deserved nominations!

Two Hugo Nominations for Aliette de Bodard!

Posted on Friday, April 5th, 2019

We’re delighted to share the news that Aliette de Bodard has been nominated for two Hugo Awards this year!

Let’s start with her latest novel, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE, which is up for Best Novella! Published by Subterranean Press in the US and JABberwocky (Worldwide English), here’s the synopsis for the critically-acclaimed book…

Once, the mindship known as The Shadow’s Child was a military transport, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken. Now the war is over, and The Shadow’s Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment. But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past–and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life…

Here are just a few of the reviews that the novella has received since it was published…

‘A science-fictional ode to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, where the Holmes figure is a sharp and biting disgraced aristocratic scholar with a solid core of empathy, and the Watson-figure is a mindship with post-traumatic stress disorder from her war experiences… This is a measured, almost stately story, right up until a conclusion that explodes in fast-paced tension. It preserves the empathy and the intensity of the original Sherlockian stories, while being told in de Bodard’s sharp prose and modern style. The worldbuilding… sparkles. The characters have presence: they’re individual and compelling. And it ends it a way that recalls the original Holmes and Watson, while being perfectly appropriate to itself.’ — Tor.com

‘De Bodard revisits her far-future Xuya universe setting with this gripping novella about damaged characters driven to search for the truth… De Bodard constructs a convincingly gritty setting and a pair of unique characters with provocative histories and compelling motivations. The story works as well as both science fiction and murder mystery, exploring a future where pride, guilt, and mercy are not solely the province of humans.’ — Publishers Weekly

‘As a classical blend of far-future SF and traditional murder mystery, THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE should satisfy readers unfamiliar with the Xuya universe, but at the same time it’s an intriguing introduction to that universe, much of which seems to lie just outside the borders of this entertaining tale.’ — Locus (Gary K. Wolfe)

‘[A] delicate, gender-bent recasting of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in the far future of her Xuya universe, the gorgeously mannered space opera setting of celebrated novellas… a window onto a beautifully developed world that widens the meaning of space opera, one that centers on Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and customs instead of Western military conventions, and is all the more welcome for it.’ — New York Times

‘This slim volume packs a visceral punch. Absorbing prose pulls readers into the dark, frigid space between stars, where ships can fail, physically and emotionally, as easily as people… this novella offers sf fans an imaginative read.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

de Bodard’s second nomination is for the Xuya Series as a whole, which is up for Best Series. This series contains a number of short stories and novellas, including THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE and THE CITADEL OF WEEPING PEARLS — both of which are available as eBooks via the JABberwocky eBook Program — and ON A RED STATION, DRIFTING.

Many congratulations again, Aliette, on these very well-deserved nominations!

Aliette de Bodard’s TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is on sale in the UK!

Posted on Tuesday, March 12th, 2019

Aliette de Bodard‘s critically-acclaimed novella THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE is included in Amazon UK’s Kindle Spring Sale! Only 99p in until April 23rd, it is published via the JABberwocky eBook Program. Here’s the synopsis…

Once, the mindship known as The Shadow’s Child was a military transport, carrying troops and crew for a war that tore the Empire apart. Until an ambush killed her crew and left her wounded and broken. Now the war is over, and The Shadow’s Child, surviving against all odds, has run away. Discharged and struggling to make a living, she has no plans to go back into space. Until the abrasive and arrogant scholar Long Chau comes to see her. Long Chau wants to retrieve a corpse for her scientific studies: a simple enough, well-paid assignment. But when the corpse they find turns out to have been murdered, the simple assignment becomes a vast and tangled investigation, inexorably leading back to the past – and, once again, to that unbearable void where The Shadow’s Child almost lost both sanity and life…

The novella is published in the US by Subterranean Press.

A Smorgasbord of Award Nominations!

Posted on Monday, February 25th, 2019

It’s February, so many award shortlists have recently been unveiled, and we’re very happy to share the news that a number of our clients have been nominated! So, in order of announcement…

Already nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, Ian McDonald‘s TIME WAS is also on the shortlist for the BSFA Award for Best Shorter Fiction! Published by Tor.com, here’s the synopsis for the critically-acclaimed novella…

A love story stitched across time and war, shaped by the power of books, and ultimately destroyed by it.

In the heart of World War II, Tom and Ben became lovers. Brought together by a secret project designed to hide British targets from German radar, the two founded a love that could not be revealed. When the project went wrong, Tom and Ben vanished into nothingness, presumed dead. Their bodies were never found.

Now the two are lost in time, hunting each other across decades, leaving clues in books of poetry and trying to make their desperate timelines overlap.

The stunning covers of two books by Zeno clients are also on the BSFA shortlist for Best Artwork…

Aliette de Bodard‘s essay ‘On motherhood and erasure: people-shaped holes, hollow characters and the illusion of impossible adventures’ has also been nominated for a BSFA Award, for Best Non-Fiction. You can read that piece here.

The BSFA Awards will be presented on Saturday 20th April at Ytterbium, the 70th Eastercon, which will be held at the Park Inn Heathrow, London, from 19-22 April 2019.

That’s not all for Aliette, however: her critically-acclaimed novella THE TEA MASTER AND THE DETECTIVE has been nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella! Published in North America by Subterranean Press, and elsewhere in English via JABberwocky, the novella has been racking up an impressive number of glowing reviews. Here’s the synopsis…

Welcome to the Scattered Pearls Belt, a collection of ring habitats and orbitals ruled by exiled human scholars and powerful families, and held together by living mindships who carry people and freight between the stars. In this fluid society, human and mindship avatars mingle in corridors and in function rooms, and physical and virtual realities overlap, the appearance of environments easily modified and adapted to interlocutors or current mood.

A transport ship discharged from military service after a traumatic injury, The Shadow’s Child now ekes out a precarious living as a brewer of mind-altering drugs for the comfort of space-travellers. Meanwhile, abrasive and eccentric scholar Long Chau wants to find a corpse for a scientific study. When Long Chau walks into her office, The Shadow’s Child expects an unpleasant but easy assignment. When the corpse turns out to have been murdered, Long Chau feels compelled to investigate, dragging The  Shadow’s Child with her.

As they dig deep into the victim’s past, The Shadow’s Child realises that the investigation points to Long Chau’s own murky past — and, ultimately, to the dark and unbearable void that lies between the stars…

The Nebula Award winners will be announced at SFWA’s 54th annual Nebula Conference in Los Angeles, CA, taking place May 16th-19th at the Marriott Warner Center in Woodland Hills, CA.