This is the home page of Aliette de Bodard, writer of fantasy and science fiction (and the very occasional horror piece), Campbell Award Finalist, and Writers of the Future Winner.

Her debut novel, Servant of the Underworld, an Aztec mystery-fantasy, is out now from HarperCollins imprint Angry Robot (UK/Australia) and forthcoming September 2010 (US/Rest of the World).

Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in a number of venues, such as Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Asimov’s, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction.

She lives in Paris, France, in a flat with more computers than she really needs, and uses her spare time to indulge in her love of mythology and history.

As a half-French, half-Vietnamese, Aliette has a strong interest in non-Western cultures, particularly the Aztecs and Ancient China, and will gladly use any excuse to shoehorn those into her short or long fiction.

A more extensive biography is available here, and a list of her fiction can be found here.

In the resources section, you will also find lists of research books for Pre-Columbian America and Ancient China.


Here is a random excerpt from Aliette’s free online fiction (click on quote to refresh):

I came into the palace of the lords One Death and Seven Death through the great gates of obsidian, on foot, armed with nothing but a desperate resolve. There, in the depths of the underworld, I asked for my husband's life.

The lords' thrones were huge, and made of human bones pieced together: skulls and finger-bones, ribs poking out at odd angles. Everything stank of death. I stood, unmoving, awaiting their response.

The lords' faces lay in shadow, and I could not see their expressions. "Few mortals dare ask for a dead man's life."

"It is allowed," I said.

They laughed without pity. "Yes, it is allowed. Tell us, Sahague. Will you play our game?"

Read more



from "Through the Obsidian Gates", Shimmer


From the Blog

A small rant

February 8, 2010

And while we’re on the subject of writing in other cultures….

Dear Interwebs (and dear writers/editors/journalists),

If you’re going to be using or quoting French words, would you please try to get the accents right? It may not seem like much to you, but witness:

-”côte”=slope; “coté“=side
-”mat”=matte, Fool trump in tarot; “mât”=mast
-”pâte”=dough, “pâté“=spreadable paste made with meat, “pate”= a word that doesn’t exist in the dictionary (though “patte” does)

I can deal with no accents whatsoever, since I’ll assume they’ve all been stripped. But please pretty please with cherries on top, don’t just randomly add them and hope it looks good. It doesn’t. It just looks weird, unpronouncable, and written by someone who had no blasted idea of what accents were for.

And if [...]


Original Picture Credits
Pyramid: rawhead (distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License)
Portrait: Ines de Bodard