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I will be at the Gollancz festival in London on October 19th.

Come see me and a ton of other cool authors!

More info here.

I’m pleased to be an author guest of the academic conference of the London Science Fiction Research Community, Productive Futures. Come see me and plenty of really smart and talented people talk about economics in the future!

It’ll be happening at Birkbeck School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD.

Get tickets here!

So… a question I’ve gotten asked a lot was about a US edition of The House of Sundering Flames, book 3 in the Dominion of the Fallen series. It’s been… tricky (to cut short a long story, I’m out of contract in the US and it’s not super easy to convince a publisher to pick book 3 of a series).

I’m pleased to announce that The House of Sundering Flames is now available for sale through JABberwocky Literary Agency, with a gorgeous atmospheric cover that matches those of the US editions.

Art and cover design is by Dirk Berger, who also did the UK edition of The Tea Master and the Detective (with thanks to John Berlyne for all the help).

This concludes the Dominion of the Fallen series (after The House of Shattered Wings and The House of Binding Thorns). Expect: more Gothic devastated Paris, more dragons, more snark, queer families, Vietnamese immortals, and creepy trees + creepy hawks!

Here’s the cover copy:

The white-hot conclusion to the Dominion of the Fallen trilogy by the multi-award-winning author…

The Great Houses of Paris—headed by Fallen angels and magicians—have co-existed in fragile peace. When a powerful explosion razes House Harrier, old alliances are torn apart and a race begins to fill the power void.

Thuan, the beleaguered dragon head of House Hawthorn, finds a war on his doorstep. Aurore, once cast out by Harrier and almost beaten to death, seeks power to protect her family—and must venture back to her former home. And, in the ruins of House Harrier, Emmanuelle desperately tries to piece her fragmented memories of the explosion.

But beneath House Harrier awaits a fiery magic that hungers for destruction. And it is time for Houses and Houseless to stand together—or be engulfed in flames…

Praise for The House of Sundering Flames:

Incredible… one of the most original, fantasy settings I’ve seen

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Ruin

thrilling and creepy A.F., a definite must for fans of de Bodard and fantastical fiction.

Tade Thompson, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author of The Rosewater trilogy

The perfect closure of the trilogy! Really took my breath away more than once.

FrauMiest (Goodreads)

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Buy book 1, The House of Shattered Wings:

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Buy book 2, The House of Binding Thorns:

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The third book in Dominion of the Fallen, The House of Sundering Flames, is out now!

Gothic devastated Paris, dragons under the waters of the Seine, flower spirits, ruined houses and monuments–my love letter to the 19th Century with more queer people and more Vietnamese people.

Things are about to burn…

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Buy book 1, The House of Shattered Wings:

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Buy book 2, The House of Binding Thorns:

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I’ll be attending the Worldcon in Dublin in two weeks’ time.

My schedule is below. Note that:

-I’m always happy to stop and chat because this is what I go to cons for: if you see me and I don’t obviously look like I’m hurrying away to go someplace else, feel free to come and say hi.

-I will have copies of my f/f Beauty and the Beast with a dragon retelling In the Vanishers’ Palace and of the Hugo award finalist The Tea Master and the Detective with me at the con: these are self-published and I’m quite happy to sign them (note that this is the only edition of Tea Master that’s going around since the Subterranean one is out of print). The easiest way to find them is at the Hodges Figgis bookstore table in the Exhibits Halls (I think they are in the Dealers’ Area?). I’ll also have some copies for sale at my events, especially my signing on Thursday. Note that this is first come first serve and that once I run out they’re all gone!

-If you’re coming over from North America and would like to grab a copy of The House of Sundering Flames, the concluding volume to the Dominion of the Fallen trilogy, I highly encourage you to hop over to the dealers’ area or to a Dublin bookseller: this title has, right now, no North American release (long story but I’m out of contract in the US) so this is your best chance to get a copy from a bookseller! I’m also quite happy to sign these obviously.

Oppy or Armstrong? Autonomous vs human space exploration

14 Aug 2019, Wednesday 19:00 – 21:00, Fringe (Other)

The Mars Explorer Rover, nicknamed Opportunity (‘Oppy’), launched in 2003, cost US$400 million and operated for 15 years. While an impressive achievement, what more could have been done with a sustained human space programme that was focused on Mars? Can the flexibility of an onsite human team justify the undoubtedly higher cost? What is the role of humans and robot probes in the exploration of space?

Our panelists examine the various (dis)advantages of both human and robotic exploration of Luna and Mars.

This is a free, ticketed event that must be booked in advance, and is taking place at the Science Gallery Dublin, Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

Jeanette Epps (NASA), Noelle Ameijenda PhD (M), Aliette de Bodard, Dr Inge Heyer (Loyola University Maryland), Geoffrey A. Landis

 

Crime and punishment in the age of superheroes

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 11:00 – 11:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

Superhero TV shows repeatedly borrow the structures and tropes of cop shows, with many superheroes being ‘Cowboy Cops’ – operating according to the Rule of Cool with a sketchy adherence to notions of due process and civil rights. Can these hybrid narratives really acknowledge the ways in which real law enforcement is tangled up with race, class, and so on, and what do they reveal about attitudes to contemporary policing?

Chris M. Barkley (M), Rachel Coleman, Dan Moren, Aliette de Bodard

 

Reading: Aliette de Bodard

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 14:00 – 14:20, ECOCEM Room (CCD)

 

Autographs: Thursday at 16:00

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 16:00 – 16:50, Level 4 Foyer (CCD)

 

Dublin 2019 fountain pen meetup

16 Aug 2019, Friday 15:00 – 15:50, Wicklow Room-5 (Workshops) (CCD)

An informal meetup for people who love and want to talk about all things fountain pen and ink! Join us to chat about your favourite pens and how you use them.

NB: feel quite free to bring your own pens and inks, or to come look in on us even if you have no pens–we’ll have some starter pens and inks for you to handle!

Aliette de Bodard (M)

Autographs: Saturday 11

17 Aug 2019, Saturday morning 11:00-11:30, Gollancz table in Dealers’ Area (CCD)

 

Invisible Work: Mothers and Caretakers in SFF

Format: Panel
17 Aug 2019, Saturday 12:00 – 12:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)

A query online for mothers in SFF led to endless lists of the most badass mothers, but why must mothers always be badass in order to be valid? Do characters like single mother Nicole Reese in Raising Dion represent a change in the depiction of SF motherhood? The panel will discuss the depiction of mothers and carers in SFF and how it aligns with the politics of motherhood in the wider world.

Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (M), Rivers Solomon

 

What I learned along the way

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 15:00 – 15:50, Wicklow Room-3 (CCD)

Writing is a many wondrous thing filled with highs and lows, but those lows can be really tough to navigate either after a great success or after a lack of success. Rejection is something every writer has to face, but how do writers keep writing in the face of failure? What lessons have they learned along the way? Our panellists share the ups and downs of a writing life.

Aliette de Bodard, Ian R MacLeod (M), Karl Schroeder (Tor Books), George Sandison (Titan Books) , Nina Allan

Kaffeeklatsch: Aliette de Bodard

18 Aug 2019, Sunday 13:00 – 13:50, Level 3 Foyer (KK/LB) (CCD)

 

Dragons, wyrms, and serpents: why the myth endures

19 Aug 2019, Monday 12:00 – 12:50, Wicklow Hall 2A (Dances) (CCD)

There are a lot of mythical beasts that can and do feature in fantasy, but the dragon/wyrm/serpent seems to be one of the most popular. What are the reasons for this enduring popularity? What roles does it perform? What mythic properties does it embody and why do these continue to resonate (if they do)?

Marie Brennan, Karen Simpson Nikakis (M), Aliette de Bodard, Naomi Novik, Joey Yu (Kino Eye Ltd. / Freelance)

A quick reminder that as we approach the publication of The House of Sundering Flames (less than two weeks!!), you can read chapter 1 here!

Come back to a Gothic devastated Paris where dragons, magicians and Fallen angels fight for dominion–and where a devastating explosion ensures that nothing will ever be the same…

(also: Vietnamese dragons! Queer relationships and queer families! Creepy trees and even creepier birds! Sarcasm, flirting and murder(*))

(*)not always in that order or indeed, not always in the same scene

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It’s almost a month before publication of the final Dominion of the Fallen book, The House of Sundering Flames (coming July 27th from Gollancz), so here’s a little snippet from the beginning:

 

In Emmanuelle’s dreams, the world was fire. Angels rose on wings of flame towards a distant, unattainable City: a concoction of mother-of-pearl buildings, enameled domes and white, eye-searing streets in which featureless shapes flowed past each other. At the top of the highest tower was the light of a burning sun—it couldn’t be watched, couldn’t be held within her field of vision without hurting her eyes or burning her face. She reached out towards it—towards Him—and everything fell apart, the flames becoming the jagged shards of a vast, unknowable puzzle raining down on her.

She woke up, and everything hurt. She lay on her back for a while, staring at a sky that wasn’t gray—that wasn’t even the cornflower blue of Lucifer Morningstar’s eyes, or of the heavens as they had been, before the war, before the pall of pollution. It was an odd shade of purple, shading into indigo. As she watched, sounds intruded: distant clatters, and a rumble, like stones collapsing atop each other. It was hot—too hot.

She needed to get up.

 

What to expect: a Gothic Paris devastated by a magical war, a bi dragon prince with a gift for trouble, explosions, back stabbings and creepy birds! (oh, and creepy trees, too. Because apparently nature is scary insofar as I’m concerned).

If you want to know more, there’ll be a longer excerpt (the whole of chapter 1, which has dragon prince Thuan as an additional point of view character) going out tomorrow with the newsletter: you can sign up here!

More info about the book here.

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The funny thing about living in Europe is that I blearily woke up this morning, made a tea to try and wake up while still rubbing my eyes, and while I was making a bottle of milk for my youngest I saw that my twitter mentions had exploded.

Which is basically how I found out that my gender-swapped space opera Sherlock Holmes retelling The Tea Master and the Detective (set in the Xuya Universe  and published by Subterranean Press and by JABberwocky) had won a Nebula Award for Best Novella (the awards were in Los Angeles so 9 hours behind me).

°_°

Below is the full text of my acceptance speech as kindly delivered for me by my good friend Fran Wilde, acceptor extraordinaire:

Uh. Whoa.

That was not expected.

I would like to thank Fran Wilde for accepting this award on my behalf, my editor Yanni Kuznia, Geralyn Lance, Bill Schafer, Gwenda Bond and everyone at Subterranean Press who worked on this book; my cover artists and designers Maurizio Manzieri, Gail Cross at Desert Isle Design and Dirk Berger, my agent John Berlyne as well as the JABberwocky team (Joshua Bilmes, Lisa Rodgers, Patrick Disselhorst) for the non-American edition. To my friends and supporters: Likhain, Zen Cho, Alis Rasmussen, Tade Thompson, Vida Cruz, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, Cindy Pon, Kari Sperring, Liz Bourke, D Franklin, Zoe Johnson, Jeannette Ng, Nene Ormes, Ken Liu, Elizabeth Bear, Stephanie Burgis, Alessa Hinlo, Inksea, and Mary Robinette Kowal, as well as everyone who spread the word, nominated this and voted for it.

I wrote this book for fun: it was a story that mashed together two of my childhood idols, Sherlock Holmes and Judge Dee, one that came with no deadlines or expectations attached to it. One thing I realised was that it’s easy for writing–for any writing–to feel frivolous and self-indulgent. There are always more important things to do, especially as a mother of colour–children, family, day job, politics in an environment that feels like it’s swinging back to darker days, with people stopping me in the streets and telling me to go back home. It’s so easy to take the path of least resistance and put writing last, to always find something more important that needs to be done.

It’s so easy to choke for lack of self-care.

The truth, of course, is that writing matters. It is frivolous, it is self-indulgent, but it is also necessary. It is breathing space and act of resistance and escapism on my own terms. Stories shaped me as a child and continue to shape me as an adult. And it is a great and potent reminder of how far this particular one has gone to be accepting this award, now.

Thank you.

(picture thanks to Fran Wilde)

Very pleased to reveal my upcoming short story collection with Subterranean Press.

Isn’t it gorgeous? The title was my choice, as it brings together several of my preoccupations! The cover is by artist and friend Maurizio Manzieri, and the cover design by Gail Cross of Desert Isle Design.

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.

It will be published in September 2019 in a gorgeous hardback edition, and include my favourite stories from the Hugo-award nominated Universe of Xuya, as well as some Dominion of the Fallen fiction set in my Gothic devastated Paris (the universe of The House of Shattered Wings, The House of Binding Thorns and the forthcoming The House of Sundering Flames).

The original novella, “Of Birthdays, and Fungus, and Kindness” is a comedy of manners set in the Dominion of the Fallen universe, where Fallen angel Emmanuelle attempts to throw a relaxing birthday party for her partner, and everything goes wrong in all the worst possible ways. Complete with supernatural fungus in a ballroom, meddling immortals and Emmanuelle desperately trying to keep it all going smoothly in spite of her enemies–and of her friends!

Preorders are now open: Subterranean website | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon FR

This is a limited print run. If you want a copy, now would be a good time: my previous novella for Subterranean Press, the Hugo and Nebula award finalist, The Tea Master and the Detective, went out of print relatively fast.