…k a big hit during the years of the war (and had to abandon some of the ground it occupied on account of its becoming too dangerous for people to go there). Hawthorn is currently headed by Fallen Asmodeus–a fairly recent change: before that, the House was headed for a long, long time by Uphir, a powerful and ruthless Fallen who nevertheless failed to see where the true danger to his House was coming from. Twenty years before the start of the novel…

…olonial empire. Post-war, it’s actually fragmenting a bit because the colonists have trouble communicating with home (there are, say, ships to Vietnam but there aren’t very many of them). But “fragmenting” mostly means people setting up their own private kingdoms, and not any kind of independence, of course… Vietnam is not yet called Vietnam in the book because that’s either a very old (Nguyen dynasty) or fairly recent name. It has three political…

…to Buy Hardback (US) Penguin Random House Amazon US Barnes and Noble US Indie Stores The Book Depository Trade Ppb (UK) Amazon UK Foyle’s Waterstones Blackwell’s WH Smith The Book Depository Ebook/Audio Amazon US (Kindle) Amazon UK (Kindle) Kobo Blackstone Audio (US audiobook) Orion Books (UK &RoW audiobook) Trade Ppb (US) Amazon US US indie stores The Book Depository Mass Market Ppb (UK) Amazon UK Foyle’s Waterstones Blackwell’s WH Smith The Boo…

…ncy from those who would prey on them, the Houses in post-war Paris have become fortresses, hoarding their wealth and dependents and fighting each other for scraps of power. A House actually encompasses a small area of Paris: it’s not a building, but generally a series of streets and associated buildings. For instance, House Silverspires, the setting of much of the novel, covers the entirety of Ile de la Cité. Each House has a formal uniform with…

…innate magic heals them, they are at their most vulnerable: amnesiac and wounded and struggling to understand what they are doing in the mortal world. Needless to say, in a world where Paris is a devastated city where everyone struggles to survive, this makes newly Fallen particularly sought after–and generally not to give them hugs or flowers… The firstborn and foremost of Fallen is Lucifer Morningstar, the founder of House Silverspires on Ile de…

…e Epoque: there have been some changes since then, but the Belle Epoque is understandably seen as halcyon days, a Golden Age everyone more or less overtly longs for, or regrets. More next week! Read Chapter One! Where to Buy Hardback (US) Penguin Random House Amazon US Barnes and Noble US Indie Stores The Book Depository Trade Ppb (UK) Amazon UK Foyle’s Waterstones Blackwell’s WH Smith The Book Depository Ebook/Audio Amazon US (Kindle) Amazon UK (…

…e their very own walls. Within the House, three very different people must come together: a naive but powerful Fallen angel; an alchemist with a self-destructive addiction; and a resentful young man wielding spells of unknown origin. They may be Silverspires’ salvation—or the architects of its last, irreversible fall. And if Silverspires falls, so may the city itself. More info here, and you can pre-order the book here: Amazon.com|Barnes and Noble…

…y I’m putting this particular story forward). It was on Tangent Online’s Recommended Reading List for 2014, and you can read it here at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, where it was first published; there are also ebook versions [EPUB|MOBI|PDF|RTF]. And an audio version read by Tina Connolly if audio’s more your thing! And now onto other people’s fiction: I’ll direct you to my Book Smugglers Smugglivius post for the fiction I loved this year, but here are…

Another of my January project has gone live at Tor.com: a roundtable on The Food of the Future, with Ann Leckie, Elizabeth Bear, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Benjanun Sriduangkaew, and Fran Wilde. Check it out here. Thanks to everyone who took part–it was a lot of fun, and especially many many thanks to Fran Wilde for masterminding it and sending me pointed reminders about fixing and submitting it in what has been a rather overwhelming month (well, OK. L…

…Today, Gardner Dozois’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection, hits the store. Stories by Lavie Tidhar, Pat Cadigan, Brit Mandelo, Elizabeth Bear, Hannu Rajaniemi and more luminaries of the genre–and it also includes my Xuya continuity story “Ship’s Brother”, originally published in Interzone. Cover Buy now at Amazon.com|Amazon.co.uk|Book Depository….