Donald Maass Literary Agency

Congratulations to the DMLA clients who made NPR’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2015 list! OF NOBLE FAMILY by Mary Robinette Kowal THE TRAITOR BARU CORMORANT by Seth Dickinson VERMILION by Molly Tanzer

Locus: A fascinating and propulsive tale about what could happen when actual humans try to settle a planet and about how little protection technology can really offer in the face of our inherent weaknesses.

VOYA: Believe it or not, Henry’s main problem is not that he gets repeatedly abducted by aliens—it is that the aliens have given him the choice to save Earth from complete destruction or not. Back on Earth things get even harder. Henry is barely holding it together at home and school. His family is broken and troubled. At school, his problems increase. Henry is constantly reminded of his boyfriend Jesse’s suicide, and he avoids his and Jesse’s mutual friend. Then […]

RT Book Reviews: Leah Beiler and her twin brother left their Amish community 10 years ago. She is now returning with her orphaned niece Mandy in tow. Many in the community, including her own family, never understood their departure. Former love Ezra Stoltzfus is cautiously optimistic about Leah’s return. However, he longs to know the truth. Will Leah’s dad accept her and Mandy back into his life? Is it too late for Leah and Ezra? And how will a little dog save the day? […]

Congratulations to Seth Dickinson (The Traitor Baru Cormorant), Elizabeth Bear (Karen Memory), and Adam Christopher (Made to Kill) on their mentions in Tor.com’s Reviewers’ Choice 2015 list!

Library Journal: Building beautifully upon the richly detailed world introduced in the first book of the series, Bennett serves a stew of fantasy and adventure with a healthy dose of humor and a ladle full of violence. Switching protagonists from sneaky Shara to the blunt soldier Turyin gives the sequel a fresh feel, and readers will be eager to read more books set in this fascinating universe.

Locus: Most of the reviews of Cherie Priest’s new-ish Maplecroft and its just-released quasi-sequel Chapelwood focus on what her world borrows from H.P. Lovecraft. Those reviews are totally right. There are a lot of tentacles and creeping dread in these two titles. They are loving tributes to Cthulhu and all that dread lord has wrought. But that’s only the surface, which becomes especially clear in the newer of the two books. […] Add to that smart subtext a young, female protagonist who is more […]

Jay Lake’s final collection of stories, Last Plane to Heaven, won 2015’s Endeavor Award for a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year. The award represents a collaboration between writers and fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy to encourage the growth of literature in the field and recognize works of excellence. It is named for H.M. Bark Endeavour, the ship of Northwest explorer Capt. James Cook.

Booklist: Messinger successfully sets Catholic theology and the occult against an authentic Old West backdrop to create a richly detailed, suspenseful debut. Jacob “Trace” Tracy nearly died in the Civil War, but with his recovery came the ability to see and talk to the dead, a most unwelcome curse as far as he is concerned. The cowboy life suits him, since the dead are more bountiful in large cities, and he and his capable partner, Boz, make a living doing ranch […]

Booklist: Nijkamp’s debut adds to the growing list of novels about school shootings. As Opportunity, Alabama, high-schoolers are welcomed in for a new school year, an armed male student locks the student body inside the auditorium, and then the carnage begins. The subsequent 54 minutes unfold with breathless pacing in the alternating voices of characters who know the shooter: Claire, the track star and former girlfriend of the shooter, who’s outside when the shooting begins. Tomás, a troublemaker who rises to […]