Dear writers: Please be aware of ongoing scams by agent impersonators. Use extra caution with any unsolicited offers from agents. Reputable agents will not ask for upfront fees of any kind. For more information, look at sites such as Writer Beware (https://writerbeware.blog/). Please always check email addresses/spellings. All official emails from Donald Maass Literary Agency will come from an address that ends in @maassagency.com (2 A's, 2 S's in MAASS).

The Murderbot Diaries: System Collapse by Martha Wells

Nov 142023
 

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back in the next installment in Martha Wells’s New York Times bestselling Murderbot Diaries series.

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.

 November 14, 2023  Tagged with: ,

Starred Review: Exordia by Seth Dickinson

Nov 102023
 

Booklist: Anna sees an alien casually dining in Central Park’s Turtle Pond. On a lark, she confronts the alien and thus begins a relationship, and soon an NSA operative and his lifelong colleague in quasilegal intrigues take her back to her birthplace in Tawakul, Kurdistan. The Exordia have set off electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) all over Earth, taking most of the world back to the eighteenth century. But humanity isn’t entirely helpless. Canadians were the first to reach the site of a huge alien artifact that the Exordia wish to claim or destroy. Then the Ugandans arrived, then the Chinese, and Russians, and each group suffered losses. When the Americans arrive, they join forces with the remnants, but by bringing Anna, they’ve brought her renegade Exordian friend. Another alien operative is also on the ground, opposed to Anna. Now, the humans have 14 hours to activate the artifact or the Exordia battlecruiser will start nuking cities. Dickinson brings the same richness of characterization that made his Baru Cormorant series (The Traitor Baru Cormorant, 2015) so compelling, but this one reads like a Michael Crichton thriller on psychedelics—in a good way.

 November 10, 2023  Tagged with: ,

The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

Nov 072023
 

The fate of the Cinder Spires may be decided by crossed swords in the next exhilarating fantasy adventure from the author of the Dresden Files, in this New York Times bestselling series of noble families, swordplay, and airships.

For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defense and trade.

Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war.

Everyone knows it’s coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora’s Armada and its new secret weapon–one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires.

A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch’s diplomatic agents.

It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion–assuming that it is not already too late.

 November 7, 2023  Tagged with: ,

Review: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

Nov 072023
 

Publishers Weekly: After a lengthy hiatus, bestseller Butcher returns to his Cinder Spires series with an explosive second installment (following 2015’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass), again starring aeronaut Capt. Francis Madison Grimm. In a world grown uninhabitable, humanity resides in several autonomous spires rising above the planet’s surface. Now war is brewing between Grimm’s home, Spire Albion, and Spire Aurora. The story opens with Grimm and the crew of Predator on a mission to a colony spire—only to discover that the human colony has been wiped out and in its place is a colony of kittens. These sentient felines make an agreement to reveal what awesome force destroyed the colony in return for a new home for their clan. From there, one plot thread follows Spirearch Guard Commander Benedict and Sgt. Bridget Tagwynn on a mission to secure territory from another cat chieftain. Meanwhile, the Predator accompanies a diplomatic mission to a trade conference on Spire Olympia. Spire Aurora has sent the duelist Rafe Valesco as part of its delegation, and Grimm has been assigned to keep his combative friend, Commodore Bayard, from dying on Valesco’s sword. Conflict and etherialist magic soon escalate, and Butcher tops everything off with a dash of romance and plenty of steampunk airship combat. Fans will find this is worth the wait.

 November 7, 2023  Tagged with: ,

Deal: Jim Butcher

Nov 032023
 

Jim Butcher and Kerrie Hughes’s PARANORMAL PAYBACK, continuing their urban fantasy anthology series, with stories about the desire for revenge (including works by Jim Butcher, Holly Black, Kim Harrison, Faith Hunter, Seanan McGuire, and others), to Anne Sowards at Ace, by Jennifer Jackson at Donald Maass Literary Agency for Butcher and Lucienne Diver at The Knight Agency for Hughes.

 November 3, 2023  Tagged with: ,

October Translation Deals

Oct 312023
 

James Scott Bell’s POWER UP YOUR FICTION, to 21st Century Culture Center (Korea), by Sue Yang at Eric Yang Agency on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Donald Maass.

Micaiah Johnson’s THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS, to Editora 14 (Brazil), by Flavia Sala at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Shaun David Hutchinson’s THE SCHOOL FOR INVISIBLE BOYS, to Nube de Tinta (Spain), by Amaiur Fernandez at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

K. Webster’s TRIPLE THREAT and DEATH WISH, to Grupo Portal (Brazil), by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Czech rights to Seth Dickinson’s EXORDIA, to Host, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Portuguese rights to New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s THE QUEEN’S PRICE, the latest book in her Black Jewels series, to Saída de Emergência, by Amaiur Fernández at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Portuguese (Brazil) rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ALL SYSTEMS RED, the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series, to Editora Aleph, by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

LJ Andrew’s CROWN OF BLOOD AND RUIN and THE EVER KING, to City Editions (France), in a two-book deal, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

Melissa K. Roehrich’s LADY OF DARKNESS and LADY OF SHADOWS, to Heyne (Germany), in a two-book deal, by Sarah Knofius at Thomas Schlueck Agency, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

 October 31, 2023  Tagged with: , , , , ,

Starred Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells

Oct 252023
 

Booklist: After the events of Fugitive Telemetry (2021), Murderbot, ART, and their colleagues remain on the alien-infected planet on the other side of the wormhole, combating the infection and trying to convince the planetary colonists to leave their world for their own safety. But corporate interests oppose their efforts, and it turns out there are more people on the planet than they realized. Meanwhile, Murderbot is having some issues and isn’t operating at full capacity. How are they supposed to successfully navigate everyone through a potentially hair-trigger standoff when they’re not sure they even know what they’re doing? This installment of the Murderbot Diaries is more a tale of political intrigue than violent action. Not that there aren’t pulse-pounding fights aplenty, but the balance has shifted. While Murderbot remains the main character, narrating their snarky take on every situation, Wells continues to build this universe. It’s a compelling setting, both in the conflicts that arise from the culture of the Corporation Rim and the deep history Wells has established. At the same time, she continues to evolve Murderbot in interesting directions. Readers won’t miss the wall-to-wall action that defined the series from its beginning. The characters and the world building remain engrossing and rewarding.

 October 25, 2023  Tagged with: ,

Deal: Kim Harrison

Oct 202023
 

New York Times bestselling author of The Hollows, Kim Harrison, sold FIRST CONTACT, TOTALITY, and EMERGENCE. With story roots born after the author witnessed the 2017 eclipse, the epic tale begins in the wake of a solar eclipse. A portal between our world and a paranormal realm opens—and a scientist’s life will never be the same, in this new thrilling serialized adventure: Eclipsed Evolution. Executive Editor Anne Sowards at Penguin Random House / Ace acquired rights via Jennifer Jackson. To be released back to back in April, May and June 2024.

 October 20, 2023  Tagged with: ,

Starred Review: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher

Oct 162023
 

Booklist: Two years after the events of The Aeronaut’s Windlass (2015), Spire Albion is hovering on the brink of war with Spire Aurora, which has been field-testing a powerful weapon that leaves no witnesses as to what could cause such complete destruction. Captain Mad Grimm and the crew of the privateer airship Predator manage to rescue some survivors of an attack on Albion territory—a tribe of kittens. But the felines refuse to identify the threat unless provided with a new home, which will require negotiations with the cats of Spire Albion. As that agreement is worked out, Predator is assigned to accompany a diplomatic delegation to Spire Olympia, where a summit between competing Spires is being held, a conclave to determine future trade patterns and ascertain alliances for the coming war. Grimm himself has been tasked with preventing any confrontations between Alex Bayard, the delegation’s deputy, and Aurora’s deadliest duelist. If he fails, his friend will die, and Albion will be deprived of allies as war is declared. Butcher’s fans will delight in the new characters and alternate Spires while enjoying favorites from the first book and will be eager for the next episode in the action-packed Cinder Spires series.

 October 16, 2023  Tagged with: ,

Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells

Oct 132023
 

Locus: The seventh of Martha Wells’s Murderbot long-form stories, System Collapse is a novel-length sequel to Network Effect, picking up within days of that novel’s conclusion. Murderbot fans are unlikely to be disappointed here: Wells is on form with the series’ trademark black humour, razor-sharp tension, Murderbot’s all-too-relatable interpersonal interactions, action, and high stakes.

But despite its action-adventure bones, System Collapse is a more low-key, introspective novel than many of the Murderbot stories have been so far. As is usual for Martha Wells’ work, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you haven’t read the Murderbot stories, I don’t advise starting here. But I do advise starting them: if you enjoy them, you’ll enjoy this one too.

 October 13, 2023  Tagged with: ,
 Older Entries  Newer Entries