Jun 032024
 

Reactor:  Those Beyond the Wall, Micaiah Johnson’s second novel, can be read as a standalone, or you can read it as a followup that’s something of a mirror image to The Space Between Worlds, her 2020 debut. Space was set mostly inside the walls of Wiley City, where an unlikely survivor named Cara found an unusual way to make a life among the privileged. Beyond is set in the nearby desert community of Ashtown, under the sometimes-deadly glare of the sun. That sun is far from the only deadly thing in Ashtown.

Both places are changed by a technological innovation that allows people to move between worlds. Each person exists, or existed, in every world, though their lives are different—sometimes more different, sometimes less. There are catches, because there are always catches. It’s not an easy experience, seeing the other yous that might have been.

This book isn’t about technology, though. (Johnson is very aware of the fine line between magic and science.) It’s about revolution, and it’s about Mr. Scales, one of the many runners who serve Nik Nik, the emperor of Ashtown. Technically, Scales is a mechanic, but like her fellows, she’s also a killer. She has been other things, and lived other lives, but at this moment, in this life, everything goes to hell when she watches a friend die horribly. There is no killer. Helene X just folds in on herself, bones breaking and reversing, as Scales tries to hold her together.

The threat that causes these terrible deaths—because of course there are more—affects primarily people in Wiley, but trouble in Wiley quickly becomes trouble for Ashtown. In the city, a scientist named Adam Bosch understands better than most what is happening. When Scales and her colleagues bring him to their emperor, a whole host of events are set in motion.

The question of who is killing the mangled dead is less of an issue than the matter of how to stop it. This is the catalyst for Johnson’s story, but its engine, its heart, is Scales, who gradually turns her attention to the pre-existing, systemic issues that affect everyone in Ashtown. The people of this world need to put a wall between themselves and the entitled, brazen enemy that would destroy them. But there is an existing wall that isn’t doing Ashtowners any good.

May 312024
 

a pair of black ear budsAudio rights to Sharon Lee’s SEA WRACK AND CHANGEWIND, a collection of short fiction from her Archers Beach setting, to Kim Budnick at Tantor Media, by Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Audio rights to Jo Miles’s The Gifted of Brennex series, to Kim Budnick at Tantor, in an exclusive submission, in a three-book deal, by Katie Shea Boutillier for Anne Tibbets.

Audio rights to Jo Ann Ferguson’s A RATHER NECESSARY END, GRAVE INTENTIONS, and FAIRE GAME, the first three books in the Priscilla Flanders series, to Megan Frampton at Everand, by Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

May 312024
 

Czech rights to Kel Kade’s LEGENDS OF AHN and KINGDOMS AND CHAOS, to Fantom Print, in a two-book deal, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Polish rights to Robert McCammon’s MISTER SLAUGHTER, to Vesper, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Portuguese (Brazil) rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, ROGUE PROTOCOL, and EXIT STRATEGY, the third, fourth, and fifth books in The Murderbot Diaries series, to Editora Aleph, by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Ukrainian rights to Hugo Award finalist Vajra Chandrasekera’s THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS and RAKESFALL, to Zhorzh, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry.

May 302024
 

Shelf Awareness: A woman forced into heroism races against time and sinister magical forces to save her family in the perfectly paced and deliciously threatening dark fantasy novella The Butcher of the Forest by World Fantasy Award winner Premee Mohamed (And What Can We Offer You Tonight).

“It was not yet dawn when they came for her,” the story begins, setting an ominous tone that only intensifies as men drag villager Veris Thorn before the Tyrant, her realm’s merciless conqueror. His two children have vanished into the Elmever, a parallel magic world that invisibly opens from a nearby wood, and he has heard that only Veris has ever brought a child back from it alive. He orders her to retrieve his children or “your village will be razed… and we will roast your people alive… and eat them.” Veris slips into the Elmever with only three tokens to guide her and a single day to retrieve the children. She must face poisonous magic; half-rotted undead beasts bent on devouring her; and elder beings who want her deepest self, all to save the children who will one day oppress her people in place of the Tyrant–if Veris can bring them out in one piece.

Mohamed puts a chilling twist on the fairy tale of the stolen child. Veris, a commoner in her late 30s with little power beyond her wits and experience, makes for a captivating heroine whose vulnerability and fear give the narrative the gasping tension of a horror movie. Butcher of the Forest is short, sharp fantasy at its finest.

May 222024
 

Author of I AM PROVIDENCE and THE SECOND SHOOTER Nick Mamatas’s KALIVAS!: OR, THE WASHED-AWAY, a post-modern, post-Singularity, and post-genre retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to Christoph Paul at Clash for publication in spring 2026 by Michael Curry.

May 202024
 

New York Times Book Review: “The Tainted Cup” is a thoroughly satisfying delight from start to finish. If you, like me, enjoy an animating nonsexual relationship between a brilliant, eccentric woman and a devoted and highly competent man, this book is a cornucopia. Bennett pulls off his own feat of engineering in splicing genres together so effectively, marrying the imaginative abundance of a fantasy world to the structure, pace and character dynamics of detective fiction.

May 172024
 

Library Journal: The old gods are dead, and the new ones are horrific. Karys Eska is bound to a new god, and the price for her ability to speak to the dead is, on an unspecified day, to be snatched away to a realm of terrors. When she attempts to rescue a dying stranger from uncanny creatures, she accidentally merges Ferain with her shadow. If Eska learns how to free him, he’ll make her wealthy. But they soon discover that the creature attack didn’t happen by chance, and forces will pursue them across nations to ensure their deaths. Along the way, both learn that they can’t outrun their pasts, but maybe some parts are worth holding on to. Hall (Second Spear) weaves a fascinating tapestry of mythology and divine politics that she underscores with deep, complicated relationships. Nearly every character struggles with trust, unequal power dynamics, and the expectations of class and nation, despite also having an intense desire for connection. The novel’s charming interludes between deadly situations are few but powerful.

VERDICT This compelling mix of horror, found family, and intricate mythology will appeal to those who loved Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys and The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin.
May 142024
 

New York Times Book Review: Where “The Space Between Worlds” was a structured book, unfolding its plot the way a scene would on a painted fan, “Those Beyond the Wall” is more tightly focused on character and voice, revolutionary ethics and practice. It’s about apartheid as a violent premise that requires violent resistance, not as a parade of suffering to be solved with pity and charity by those who profit from it. It’s a book that forces its characters and its readers to reckon with two questions: What side of the wall are you on, and what side of the wall do you want to be on?

May 132024
 

The 2024 Locus Awards finalists have been announced and we’re excited to see so many DMLA authors on this list!

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
  • System Collapse, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
FANTASY NOVEL
  • Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
HORROR NOVEL
  • The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga; Titan UK)
FIRST NOVEL
  • The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
NOVELLA
  • The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire; Titan UK)
NOVELETTE
  • “At Every Door a Ghost”, Premee Mohamed (Communications Breakdown)
SHORT STORY
  • “Suppertime”, Tananarive Due (New Suns 2)
  • “Those Hitchhiking Kids“, Darcie Little Badger (The Sunday Morning Transport 4/2/23)
ANTHOLOGY
  • The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022), Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis, eds. (Caezic)
COLLECTION
  • The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Tananarive Due (Akashic)
  • No One Will Come Back For Us, Premee Mohamed (Undertow)
  • Skin Thief, Suzan Palumbo (Neon Hemlock)
NON-FICTION
  • 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Page Street Publishing)
May 102024
 

Congratulations to DMLA author, Jim Butcher, and his series The Dresden Files for being featured in Forbes as one of the best series of all time!

FORBES: 17. The Dresden Files By Jim Butcher

Spanning an impressive 17 books (and counting) and written over the course of more than two decades, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files is a spellbinding narrative collection with elements of noir mystery, supernatural intrigue and pulse-pounding action. The New York Times bestselling series has attracted readers because of its layered approach to the art of storytelling. At the heart of the series is Harry Dresden, a wizard and private investigator who operates in the shadows of modern-day Chicago. Butcher’s vivid prose comes alive through Dresden, who gives readers a vicarious insight into life in the windy metropolis, while navigating the gritty streets of the city and facing off vengeful vampires and malevolent creatures.