Donald Maass Literary Agency

Publishers Weekly: In this impressive dark fantasy debut, witches are anything but cardboard embodiments of good and evil. They are modern, yet plagued by a 200-year-old curse; they are sometimes untrained and unaware, but still have incredible power flowing in their veins. Lauren Reardon thought she was a perfectly normal person, until her father’s death revealed her family connection to the witches from the tiny town of Gideon, Ill., who are tasked with keeping demons from entering this world. After John […]

Congratulations to Karl Schroeder on Lockstep being named one of School Library Journal‘s Best Adult Books for Teens 2014! When seventeen-year-old Toby McGonigal finds himself lost in space, separated from his family, he expects his next drift into cold sleep to be his last. After all, the planet he’s orbiting is frozen and sunless, and the cities are dead. But when Toby wakes again, he’s surprised to discover a thriving planet, a strange and prosperous galaxy, and something stranger still—that he’s been asleep […]

Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal on Valour and Vanity being named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2014! Mary Robinette Kowal’s wonderful Glamourist series gets even better in this fourth volume: Jane and Vincent, the married “glamuralists” (muralists who use magic) at the center of the series, are on their way to Murano, Italy, when they’re caught in an elaborate fraud scheme. Without friends or resources, Jane and Vincent live under suspicion for months, until a chance encounter with their […]

Congratulations to Tom Pollock on Our Lady of the Streets being named one of The Guardian‘s Best Science Fiction Books of 2014! “This year also saw the final volume in Tom Pollock’s superb YA Skyscraper Throne trilogy: Our Lady of the Streets (Quercus) uses fantasy conceits and a tireless capacity for invention to map the dazzle, diversity and menace of London in ways simply unavailable to realist writers.”

Boing Boing: “Jacobs isn’t afraid to take YA horror into dark places, and this book has some chilling glimpses into sinister sexuality, violence, and psychological torture — but, amazingly, this stuff is never played for cheap thrills or shocks. … Jacobs is a master of racheting up the tension and never offering release.” — Cory Doctorow Read Cory Doctorow’s full review of The Shibboleth by John Hornor Jacobs at Boing Boing.

Shaun David Hutchinson’s WE ARE THE ANTS, about a boy who is (maybe) abducted by aliens and told the world will end in 144 days unless he pushes a big red button, but in the aftermath of his boyfriend’s suicide, he’s not sure the world is worth saving, again to Michael Strother at Simon Pulse, in a two-book deal, by Amy Boggs.

Wen Spencer’s THE BLACK WOLVES OF BOSTON, about a werewolf victim, a vampire of vampires and a half-angel girl child teaming up in Boston to fight a huntsman, a creature created by witches, to Toni Weisskopf at Baen, by Donald Maass.

Publishers Weekly: In this haunting tale of grief and recovery, 17-year-old Andrew Brawley lives like a ghost in the sprawling wings of Roanoke General Hospital, working in the cafeteria, visiting patients, and borrowing what he needs to get by. When he’s not trying to play matchmaker for his friends Lexi and Trevor—both battling cancer—he’s talking to nurses or working on his comic, Patient F, all while avoiding the tragic circumstances that took his family and left him behind. When Rusty, […]

Les Klinger and Laura Caldwell’s ANATOMY OF INNOCENCE, a non-fiction anthology of the stories of exonerees told by well-known mystery writers, all proceeds going to Life After Innocence, to Bob Weil at W.W. Norton, by Donald Maass.

Booklist: Recommended for readers seeking the thrill of the chase. Minnesota BCA agent Kirk Stevens (Kill Fee, 2013) is camping with his family when he’s called to the nearby scene of a rural deputy’s shooting. A young woman found next to the body could be either killer or witness; she’s hysterical and barely speaking English. When they finally convince the girl, Irina, to trust them, they learn that she’s escaped a ring of human traffickers who still hold her teenage sister […]