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).

Review: The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

Apr 212017
 

Publishers Weekly: In this genre-bending debut novel, a science fantasy set in 2064, newly awakened demigods and artificial intelligences battle for the fate of South Africa. As a new drug spreads through the population, it unlocks long-hidden abilities and animal affinities, remnants of a mythological time when humans and nature intermingled. While an ancient demigoddess schemes to regain her full powers by causing terror, other people are swept up in the tide of events, including a politician who dreams of embracing his female side as a stage performer, a pop diva, a gay teen in love with his best friend, and an AI collective unsure of its role in the world. Drayden uses numerous perspectives to weave an engaging story that’s populated by a diverse cast and enhanced by fascinating concepts. There’s a lot to take in as the various plot threads interweave and converge toward a surprising climax, but Drayden balances the genre elements skillfully, creating a world where genetic manipulation, sentient robots, and folkloric origin stories can coexist plausibly, if not peacefully.

Review: Brimstone by Cherie Priest

Apr 192017
 

NPR: Brimstone is a deeply loving book. Cassadaga is a real place, with a real lineage of devastating fires, and the respect and affection for its history and residents glows from each page.

Full of charm and care, with light-hearted fun woven gently into compassionate renderings of sorrow and loss, Brimstone is equal parts affectionate romp and affecting story ­ not least because, given the state of the world, it’s good to read books in which hate is scarier than ghosts, love is stronger than hate, and witches simply refuse to burn.

A Ready-Made Amish Family by Jo Ann Brown

Apr 182017
 

As temporary guardian of two sets of young and energetic twins, widowed minister Isaiah Stoltzfus needs a nanny immediately. Keeping the kids happy and safe while also trying to run his blacksmith shop is becoming impossible. So when Clara Ebersol arrives to help, Isaiah is relieved. Able to soothe, teach and delight the children, Clara feels like family. Love-shy Isaiah knows that recently jilted Clara isn’t looking for marriage, either. But with matchmakers—including four young kinder—on the job, Isaiah and Clara may soon find their hands clasped in matrimony.

Deal: Susan R. Matthews

Apr 142017
 

Photo of author Susan R. MatthewsSusan R. Matthews’ CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, the eighth novel in the Philip K. Dick Award nominated Jurisdiction Universe series that began with Exchange of Hostages, to Tony Daniel at Baen Books by Jennifer Jackson.

Review: Brimstone by Cherie Priest

Apr 122017
 

RT Book Reviews: Priest has a knack for writing likable, well-rounded characters and putting them through some unpleasant, creepy events. The bourbon-loving, easily flustered psychic Alice might be the author’s most purely endearing protagonist yet, and Tomas, the stricken but resolute tailor, is tremendously easy to root for as well. The depictions of the various fires and some other events are vivid and at times wince-inducing. While the immediate narrative here is wrapped up nicely by the end, readers may wish for some return trips to this version of Cassadaga, Fla.

Alice Dartle is able to talk to the deceased, read the future … and has zero interest in settling down. When she moves to the clairvoyant community of Cassadaga, Fla., to learn more and be among like-minded others, she begins to dream of a man ­ and fire. Tomás Cordero came home from the Great War hoping to return to his beloved wife. Now he is haunted by her memory, and an entity that is leaving him messages through fire. He is sure it’s his wife, but as the flames begin taking their toll and driving him toward Alice, it becomes increasingly likely that there’s something darker and much more dangerous at work.

2017 Hugo Award Finalists

Apr 072017
 

Congratulations to the DMLA clients nominated for the 2017 Hugo Awards!

Best Novel:
Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris Books)
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (Tor Books)

Best Short Story:
“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies” by Brooke Bolander (Uncanny Magazine,
November 2016)

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer:
Ada Palmer

Review: Brimstone by Cherie Priest

Apr 052017
 

Barnes and Noble: In BRIMSTONE, award-winning author Cherie Priest, a mistress of many genres­horror, southern gothic, science fiction, and steampunk ­melds historical fiction with the fantastical, and makes magic.

Cherie Priest is a deft storyteller in any genre, and history really does come alive when she puts pen to paper. BRIMSTONE, in particular, will appeal to those who enjoy a bit of strange history to go along with their magic.

Read the full feature here!

Brimstone by Cherie Priest

Apr 042017
 

A new dark historical fantasy from the “supremely gifted”* Cherie Priest, author of Mapelcroftand Boneshaker.

In the trenches of Europe during the Great War, Tomás Cordero operated a weapon more devastating than any gun: a flame projector that doused the enemy in liquid fire. Having left the battlefield a shattered man, he comes home to find yet more tragedy—for in his absence, his wife has died of the flu. Haunted by memories of the woman he loved and the atrocities he perpetrated, Tomás dreams of fire and finds himself setting match to flame when awake….

Alice Dartle is a talented clairvoyant living among others who share her gifts in the community of Cassadaga, Florida. She too dreams of fire, knowing her nightmares are connected to the shell-shocked war veteran and widower. And she believes she can bring peace to him and his wife’s spirit.

But the inferno that threatens to consume Tomás and Alice was set ablaze centuries ago by someone whose hatred transcended death itself….

Blood Enemies by Susan R. Matthews

Apr 042017
 

Andrej Koscuisko is a former Fleet Medical Officer for the enormous totalitarian star empire, the Jurisdiction. But when he served in the Fleet, Andrej’s real job was not medicine, at least not primarily medicine, but to act as a torturer of prisoners, whether they had information to give or not. To help him in his duties, Andrej was attended by “bond involuntaries”—slaves—men he’d come to look upon as friends and family. Finally, enough was enough. Andrej absconded with six of his Fleet-provided security slaves and sent them into the no-man’s land of Gonebeyond Space—beyond the reach of the Jurisdiction’s tyrannical Bench.

Now The Angel of Death, a savage terrorist organization from Andrej’s system of origin, means to make Gonebeyond its own. But its ancestral enemy – the secret service of the Dolgorukij church, the Malcontent – has planted a double agent on the inside of the Angel of Death. Finally this interstellar menace might be destroyed forever.

But there is trouble. Andrej Koscuisko wasn’t expected to escape from protective custody at Safehaven Medical Center and come looking for his freed bond involuntaries, and now the Malcontent faces Andrej’s unplanned intervention at the worst possible time. Now the only way to save the mission and bring down an organization that has slain whole systems of men, women, and children is for Andrej to embrace the savagery in his own heart and once again take on the role of Judicial torturer—a role that he had fought long and hard to escape. He must deploy every dirty trick

March Translation Deals

Mar 312017
 

Spanish rights to Ada Palmer’s TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING and SEVEN SURRENDERS, Books 1 and 2 of the Terra Ignota series, to Insolita, by Maru de Montserrat at International Editors, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

French renewal rights to NYT bestselling author Jim Butcher’s FURIES OF CALDERON and ACADEM’S FURY, the 1st and 2nd books in the Codex Alera series, to Bragelonne, by David Camus at the Anna Jarota Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to Robert McCammon’s THE BORDER, to Luzifer, by Kathrin Nehm at Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Cameron McClure.

German rights to NYT bestselling author, Skye Warren’s Endgame series, as well as stand-alone WANDERLUST, to Festa, in a four-book deal, by Julia Aumuller at Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

Turkish rights to Nnedi Okorafor’s WHO FEARS DEATH, to Sis Yayincilik, by Nazli Cokdu at ONK Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

German rights to USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda’s forthcoming BEST DAY EVER, to Lubbe, by Julia Aumuller at Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

Georgian rights to Brent Weeks’s THE BLACK PRISM, Book 1 in the Lightbrigher series, to Palitra, by Nada Cipranic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

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