Sword of Bone, Halls of Thorns
A story with bones and thorns and ghosts, and the choices we make, and how they can haunt us past death and rebirth.
Short Stories
Free Online
At the Foot of the Dragon Stair
A story about monasteries, history and destiny in the midst of world devastation.
Mulberry and Owl
A Xuya story about a deadly mindship, an oath of sisterhood and a long-gone rebellion that still left indelible marks.
The Scholar of the Bamboo Flute
A scholar, a flute, and a series of mysterious duels in a 19th Century alt-Vietnamese academy
The Long Tail
A story about memory and war and transfers of memories between shifts (and statistics!).
The Inaccessibility of Heaven
A noir novelette about Fallen angels, exile, and a serial killer on the loose. Ignyte Award Winner. Hugo Award finalist and Locus Award finalist.
In the Lands of the Spill
A story of feral AIs, flooded Vietnam, and the lands of the Spill... Locus Award finalist.
Court of Birth, Court of Strength
A Dominion of the Fallen story (standalone). In the ruins of a Gothic Paris, a city devastated in the wake of a magical war, a young and sheltered Fallen angel goes to an older one for help in finding a missing child...
Free story: Children of Thorns, Children of Water
A Dominion of the Fallen story. Dragons infiltrating a decaying Parisian Mansion--creepy magic, banter, and chocolate eclairs! In Uncanny Magazine. 2018 Locus Award Finalist, 2018 Hugo Award Finalist.
The Dragon that Flew out of the Sun
A Xuya story about war, loss, and the myths that we make for ourselves...
A Hundred and Seventy Storms
A Xuya story set on an orbital around a... particularly unpleasant planet, in Uncanny Magazine.
A Salvaging of Ghosts
A Xuya story about loss, ghosts, and diving into the wrecks of mindships. Beneath Ceaseless Skies, special Science Fantasy issue, March 2016. 2017 Locus Award Finalist.
Crossing the Midday Gate
A Xuya universe story, published in Athena Andreadis's To Shape the Dark. Reprinted in Lightspeed Magazine.
Lullaby for a Lost World
A dark and creepy answer to "The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas", June 8th, Tor.com
Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight
A Xuya universe story, published in Clarkesworld Magazine in January 2015. Winner of the BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction. Locus Award Finalist, Best Short Story.
Prayers of Forges and Furnaces
An Aztec steampunk story, available in Lightspeed Magazine.
The Days of the War, as Red as Blood, as Dark as Bile
A Xuya universe story, published in the Spring 2014 issue of Subterranean.
The Breath of War
A Xuya science fantasy story published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March 2014. Finalist for a Nebula Award for Best Short Story (2014).
The Moon Over Red Trees
Historical fantasy set in colonial Indochina, published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies October 2014
Ship’s Brother
A Xuya universe story, reprinted in Clarkesworld, January 2014.
Immersion
A Xuya universe story. Winner, Locus and Nebula Award, 2012; shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the British Science Fiction Association Award, 2012.
Worlds like a Hundred Thousand Pearls
The Princess of the Perfume River
The Heartless Light of Stars
Scattered Along the River of Heaven
A Xuya universe story. Shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, 2012.
The Shipmaker
A Xuya universe story. Winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award, 2010.
As the Wheel Turns
Memories in Bronze, Feathers and Blood
The Wind-Blown Man
Melanie
In the Age of Iron and Ashes
Golden Lilies
Blighted Heart
Memories of my Sister
The Lonely Heart
A retelling of "The Painted Skin" set in modern-day China, reprinted in Lightspeed Magazine January 2015.
Beneath the Mask
The Dragon’s Tears
The Weight of a Blessing
A Xuya universe story
The Dancer’s Gift
Through the Obsidian Gates
Obsidian Shards: an Obsidian and Blood Short Story
The Lost Xuyan Bride
A Xuya universe story
Autumn’s Country
Safe, Child, Safe: an Obsidian and Blood Short Story
The Waiting Stars
A Xuya universe story. Nebula Award for Best Novelette, 2013. Shortlisted for the Hugo and Locus Award, 2013.
Stories for Purchase
The Scholar of the Bamboo Flute
A scholar, a flute, and a series of mysterious duels in a 19th Century alt-Vietnamese academy
Where to buyAmazon
Rescue Party
A Xuya story, in Jonathan's Strahan Mission Critical
Where to buyBarnes and Noble Amazon US Amazon UK
Among the Water Buffaloes, a Tiger’s Steps
A story of sleepers, tigers and buffaloes in a future where most humans are absent and all that remains are their constructs...
Where to buyHex website Amazon
The Counting of Vermillion Beads
A retelling of Tấm Cám set in a science fantasy palace. In A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, ed. Elsie Chapman and Ellen Oh, June 2018, Greenwillow Books
Where to buyAmazon US
At the Crossroads of Shadow and Bone
War, time-travel and the wounds that never die. In Alma Alexander's Children of a Different Sky.
Where to buyAmazon US
A Burning Sword for her Cradle
Refugees and swords.
Where to buyAmazon
Cicada Song, in a Country since Long Gone
A story about cicadas, death, refugees, and the cost of fleeing a war, in The Death of All Things, ed Zombies Need Brains
Where to buyPaperback Ebook Bundle Ebook & Paperback
In Everlasting Wisdom
Where to buyIndiebound Amazon
The House, in Winter
A Dominion of the Fallen short story.
Where to buyAmazon UK Foyle's Waterstones Blackwell's WH Smith The Book Depository
A Game of Three Generals
A Xuya story about chess and lava planets, in Extrasolar, ed Nick Gevers.
Where to buyExtrasolarAmazon
Pearl
A Xuya short story about low-level artificial intelligences, in Navah Wolfe's and Dominik Parisien's The Starlit Wood.. 2017 Locus Award Finalist.
Where to buyAmazon Us
Against the Encroaching Darkness
A short story set in the universe of The House of Shattered Wings, in the House of Lazarus. Published in Grimdark Magazine, October 2015 issue.
Where to buyGrimdark Magazine website
First Presentation
A Xuya universe story
Where to buyIndiebound
In Blue Lily’s wake
A Xuya universe story, in Meeting Infinity ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris, Dec 2015)
Where to buyAmazon US||Indiebound
The Death of Aiguillon
Set in the world of my novel, The House of Shattered Wings.
Where to buySubterranean Press website
The Dust Queen
A near-future science fiction story, published in Reach for Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan, Solaris Books (June 2014). Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2014.
Where to buyAmazon US
A Slow Unfurling of Truth
A Xuya universe story, in Carbide-tipped Pens, edited by Ben Bova and Eric Choi (December 2014).
Where to buyAmazon US
The Frost on Jade Buds
A Xuya universe story, published in Solaris Rising 3
Where to buyAmazon
Starsong
A Xuya universe story.
Where to buyAsimov's
Two Sisters in Exile
A Xuya universe story
Where to buyAmazon (Solaris) Amazon (Year's Best)
Exodus Tides
Where to buyAmazon
Age of Miracles, Age of Wonders
Where to buyTTA Press
Father’s Last Ride
Where to buyAmazon
Fleeing Tezcatlipoca
A Xuya universe story.
Where to buySpace and Time
The Church of Accelerated Redemption (with Gareth L Powell)
Where to buyAmazon US
On Horizon’s Shores
Where to buyAmazon
Ys
Where to buyAlchemy Press TTA Press
Butterfly, Falling at Dawn
A Xuya universe story
Where to buyAmazon
Dragon Feasts
Where to buyAndromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
Horus Ascending
Where to buyIGMS Back Issues
Within the City of the Swan
Where to buyShimmer Back Issues
Deer Flight
Where to buyTTA Press
Calling the Unicorn
Where to buyASIM
A Warrior’s Death
Where to buyShimmer
Memorials
A Xuya universe story. Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2014.
Where to buyAsimov's website
The Angel at the Heart of the Rain
Where to buyTTA Press
Other Stories
What It Means to Burn
A story of living cities and insect people. In Eric Olive's Deep Signal.
Old stories complete list
By Bargain and By Blood
Heaven Under Earth
Tiptree Honor List, 2013.
The Jaguar House, in Shadow
A Xuya universe story
