Four Zeno Clients on the BSFA Long-List!


The British Science Fiction Association published their BSFA Awards longlist last week, and we’re very happy to report that four Zeno clients have work that appear! Read on for details!

Ben Aaronovitch‘s latest Peter Grant/Rivers of London novel, the best-selling and acclaimed AMONGST OUR WEAPONS is on the Best Novel long-list! Published in the UK by Orion Books and in North America by DAW Books, here’s the synopsis…

There is a world hidden underneath this great city…

The London Silver Vaults – for well over a century, the largest collection of silver for sale in the world. It has more locks than the Bank of England and more cameras than a celebrity punch-up. Not somewhere you can murder someone and vanish without a trace – only that’s what happened.

The disappearing act, the reports of a blinding flash of light and memory loss amongst the witnesses all make this a case for Detective Constable Peter Grant and the Special Assessment Unit.

Alongside their boss DCI Thomas Nightingale, the SAU find themselves embroiled in a mystery that encompasses London’s tangled history, foreign lands and, most terrifying of all, the North!

And Peter must solve this case soon because back home his partner Beverley is expecting twins any day now. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s about to encounter something – and somebody – that nobody ever expects…

Effortlessly original, endlessly inventive and hugely entertaining – step into the world of the much-loved, Number One bestselling Rivers of London series.

Aliette de Bodard‘s acclaimed new Xuya novel, THE RED SCHOLAR’S WAKE is on the long-list for Best Novel, and its UK cover by Alyssa Winans is on the long-list for Best Cover. The novel is published by Gollancz in the UK (left) and JABberwocky in North America. Here’s the synopsis…

Xích Si: bot maker, data analyst, mother, scavenger. But those days are over now-her ship has just been captured by the Red Banner pirate fleet, famous for their double-dealing and cruelty. Xích Si expects to be tortured to death-only for the pirates’ enigmatic leader, Rice Fish, to arrive with a different and shocking proposition: an arranged marriage between Xích Si and herself.

Rice Fish: sentient ship, leader of the infamous Red Banner pirate fleet, wife of the Red Scholar. Or at least, she was the latter before her wife died under suspicious circumstances. Now isolated and alone, Rice Fish wants Xích Si’s help to find out who struck against them and why. Marrying Xích Si means Rice Fish can offer Xích Si protection, in exchange for Xích Si’s technical fluency: a business arrangement with nothing more to it.

But as the investigation goes on, Rice Fish and Xích Si find themselves falling for each other. As the interstellar war against piracy intensifies and the five fleets start fighting each other, they will have to make a stand-and to decide what kind of future they have together…

An exciting space opera and a beautiful romance, from an exceptional SF author.

Also, the latest novella in Aliette’s Dragons & Blades series (set in the same world as the acclaimed Dominion of the Fallen series), OF CHARMS, GHOSTS AND GRIEVANCES is on the long-list for Best Short Fiction. It is published by JABberwocky. Here’s the synopsis…

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.

Lavie Tidhar has three short stories on the long-list in that category, all three of which an be read online:

Finally, Adam Oyebanji‘s debut science fiction novel, BRAKING DAY is nominated in the Best Novel category! Published in the UK by Jo Fletcher Books, here’s the synopsis…

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

Short Fiction Watch: Lavie Tidhar Has Been Quite Busy…


If you follow Lavie Tidhar on Twitter, you may have noticed his frequent announcements that he’s sold a short story. Well, many of these are now starting to see the light of day, and we wanted to take this opportunity to let you know where some of them have landed. So, without further ado…

Next month (November 11th, to be precise) Tor.com are due to publish JUDGE DEE AND THE LIMITS OF THE LAW. Aside from the cover (at top) and the release date, there’s not much information about the story, save for this Tweet from Lavie:

JUVENILIA appears in Uncanny Magazine’s September/October 2020 issue, which is out now. You can read the story online, too. Here’s a very short snippet…

In the winter of 19–, having newly arrived in England, and still recovering from the nervous indisposition which had afflicted me greatly ever since my circumstances during the war, I responded to an advertisement placed in the Yorkshire Post, for the position of caretaker in an old, near-abandoned Elizabethan mansion called Wildfell Hall.

Who in truth owned it, I did not know. I was met at the train station of the nearby village by a young London solicitor, who informed me cheerfully that I was the only applicant…

The story BLUE AND BLUE AND BLUE AND PINK is available now in Clarkesworld’s September 2020 issue, as well as on the magazine’s website as text and in an audio edition.

Purple clouds roiled on the horizon and the old Cessna Centurion came in low and fast, riding the tailwind. Giorgio, on the ground and looking up, took shelter behind a crude half-shed of corrugated iron and lit a cigarette with a Zippo he’d once bought in the Talat Sao back in Vientiane. It was supposedly owned by a downed Air America pilot during the Secret War.

He stared at the plane coming in from the border. Smoke was coming out of the engine and half a wing looked like it’d been strafed, and Giorgio wondered who it was flying it. One of the Israelis, maybe…

In Beneath Ceaseless Skies issue #314 (October 2020), you can find Lavie’s novelette THE DROWNED GOD’S HERESY — a new story featuring Gorel of Goliris, star of GOREL AND THE POT BELLIED GOD (published by PS Publishing). The issue is available as an eBook, and the story can also be read on BCS’s website.

Now, forever exiled, he sought his home, his birth right, his throne. He would not rest until he found it.

Finally, a new Israeli SF magazine — Speculation — has launched, and it recently published the Hebrew translation of Lavie’s story NEOM (ניאום). You can read that story here. One of the author’s ‘favourite recent stories’, it was first published in the January-February 2019 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.

Short Fiction Watch: THE INACCESSIBILITY OF HEAVEN by Aliette de Bodard


This is just a quick post to draw your attention to the latest issue of Uncanny Magazine (#35, July/August 2020), which features a new short story by Aliette de Bodard! Specifically, THE INACCESSIBILITY OF HEAVEN, which is ‘A noir novelette about Fallen angels, exile, and a serial killer on the loose.’ Here’s a short snippet, from Aliette’s website

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.

I fumbled in my bag for the key, wincing as the leather scraped against my skin. I didn’t blame the Fallen for attacking me or getting drunk: I knew all too well how former angels balanced on a knife’s edge between despair and madness, and how easy it was for them to let go–in a city which sold their bones as drugs.

Aliette is the mutli-award-winning author of the Xuya Universe, Dominion of the Fallen series, the Obsidian & Blood trilogy, and many more!