Donald Maass Literary Agency

Publishers Weekly: A gentle elegiac tone pervades this stunning posthumous historical fantasy from multi–Hugo and Nebula award winner McIntyre (Dreamsnake), who died in 2019. In ancient Crete, Iakinthu, a former bull dancer, is at the apex of her second profession as chief diplomat-trader of her seafaring nation. To fulfill Minoan tradition, she must take her adopted son, Rhenthizu, to meet his birth mother in a faraway land no Minoan has ever visited, after which he will choose which woman to live with. Their epic journey plays out as a feminist odyssey through six distinctive and mostly matriarchal cultures, superbly constructed around permutations of myth and legend. McIntyre’s scene-setting is lush and immersive, and her finely drawn, women-led cast leaps off the page as they confront obstacles with wit and wisdom. This sensitive and captivating voyage of discovery is a fitting capstone to a remarkable career. (May)

Publishers Weekly: McCarty’s elegant and melancholy fantasy debut follows Poppy Hill, who in 1880, at the age of five, was abducted by faeries and taken to their world, called Otherside, where she grew up and became a cook for the Wild King. She was then returned to the human world in the modern day as a woman in her late 20s. Poppy now works as a consultant for the Montana branch of law firm Carter Lane, which negotiates contracts between humans who want extraordinary abilities and Otherside agents, who grant them—for a price. Her specialty is scrutinizing contracts for loopholes that Otherside can exploit. The plot kicks into gear when Poppy botches a case involving German anthropologist Gabriele Albrecht, who wants to trade her sense of taste for the ability to speak every human language, not catching a loophole that results in Gabriele being bound to serve seven years in Otherside. Now Poppy must return to Otherside to rescue Gabriele, risking her safety, her job, and her friends in both worlds. This desperate quest leads her into negotiations with her former lover, Elan, and a plot to depose a king. Wistful and witty with exquisite worldbuilding, McCarty’s sprawling epic challenges notions of identity, loyalty, and the places one calls home. It’s a thrilling start.