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Review: RAKESFALL by Vajra Chandrasekera

Jun 052024
 

Booklist: “[T]his is how she and I have spent our long and convoluted journey through time: joined at the hip, joined at the death, haunting each other, carrying each other.” Chandrasekera follows two entwined souls through an endless cycle of reincarnation and destruction in this slipstream novel, a poetic saga about identity and memory, colonialism and revolution, connection and commitment. It begins with a hauntingly enigmatic analysis of a TV show starring teenagers Annelid and Levert and set during a “war which is now over but never over.” Annelid is possessed by a demon in the jungle, and Leveret, a newly made revolutionary, is murdered. Though the show, watched by fans in the far future, ends with Leveret’s death, their story continues in the many nonlinear lives and worlds into which they reincarnate. These worlds, from ancient legends to a ruined, abandoned Earth, are woven from South Asian culture and populated with corrupt politicians and kings, revolutionaries, demons, living corpses, old gods, posthumans, artificial intelligences, and more. Chandrasekera employs multiple narrative forms and storytelling styles in this often difficult to parse but impossible to forget surrealist experience.

May Translation Deals

May 312024
 

Czech rights to Kel Kade’s LEGENDS OF AHN and KINGDOMS AND CHAOS, to Fantom Print, in a two-book deal, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Polish rights to Robert McCammon’s MISTER SLAUGHTER, to Vesper, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Portuguese (Brazil) rights to New York Times bestselling author Martha Wells’ ARTIFICIAL CONDITION, ROGUE PROTOCOL, and EXIT STRATEGY, the third, fourth, and fifth books in The Murderbot Diaries series, to Editora Aleph, by Cristina Purchio at International Editors’ Co. in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Ukrainian rights to Hugo Award finalist Vajra Chandrasekera’s THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS and RAKESFALL, to Zhorzh, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry.

Starred Review: THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST by Premee Mohamed

May 302024
 

Shelf Awareness: A woman forced into heroism races against time and sinister magical forces to save her family in the perfectly paced and deliciously threatening dark fantasy novella The Butcher of the Forest by World Fantasy Award winner Premee Mohamed (And What Can We Offer You Tonight).

“It was not yet dawn when they came for her,” the story begins, setting an ominous tone that only intensifies as men drag villager Veris Thorn before the Tyrant, her realm’s merciless conqueror. His two children have vanished into the Elmever, a parallel magic world that invisibly opens from a nearby wood, and he has heard that only Veris has ever brought a child back from it alive. He orders her to retrieve his children or “your village will be razed… and we will roast your people alive… and eat them.” Veris slips into the Elmever with only three tokens to guide her and a single day to retrieve the children. She must face poisonous magic; half-rotted undead beasts bent on devouring her; and elder beings who want her deepest self, all to save the children who will one day oppress her people in place of the Tyrant–if Veris can bring them out in one piece.

Mohamed puts a chilling twist on the fairy tale of the stolen child. Veris, a commoner in her late 30s with little power beyond her wits and experience, makes for a captivating heroine whose vulnerability and fear give the narrative the gasping tension of a horror movie. Butcher of the Forest is short, sharp fantasy at its finest.

Deal: Nick Mamatas

May 222024
 

Author of I AM PROVIDENCE and THE SECOND SHOOTER Nick Mamatas’s KALIVAS!: OR, THE WASHED-AWAY, a post-modern, post-Singularity, and post-genre retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to Christoph Paul at Clash for publication in spring 2026 by Michael Curry.

2024 Locus Awards finalists

May 132024
 

The 2024 Locus Awards finalists have been announced and we’re excited to see so many DMLA authors on this list!

SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
  • System Collapse, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
FANTASY NOVEL
  • Witch King, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
HORROR NOVEL
  • The Reformatory, Tananarive Due (Saga; Titan UK)
FIRST NOVEL
  • The Saint of Bright Doors, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom)
NOVELLA
  • The Salt Grows Heavy, Cassandra Khaw (Nightfire; Titan UK)
NOVELETTE
  • “At Every Door a Ghost”, Premee Mohamed (Communications Breakdown)
SHORT STORY
  • “Suppertime”, Tananarive Due (New Suns 2)
  • “Those Hitchhiking Kids“, Darcie Little Badger (The Sunday Morning Transport 4/2/23)
ANTHOLOGY
  • The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2022), Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki & Eugen Bacon & Milton Davis, eds. (Caezic)
COLLECTION
  • The Wishing Pool and Other Stories, Tananarive Due (Akashic)
  • No One Will Come Back For Us, Premee Mohamed (Undertow)
  • Skin Thief, Suzan Palumbo (Neon Hemlock)
NON-FICTION
  • 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered, Sadie Hartmann (Page Street Publishing)

Starred Review: SHEINE LENDE by Darcie Little Badger

May 082024
 

Shelf Awareness: The gritty, luminous Sheine Lende, a prequel to Darcie Little Badger’s acclaimed first novel, Elatsoe, features stouthearted Shane (grandmother to Elatsoe’s Ellie) who uses the family’s ability to raise ghosts to find three people, one of whom is her own mother.

The women in 17-year-old Shane Solé’s Lipan Apache family line know how to reach deep into “the world Below” to “raise the ghosts of animals.” Shane and her mother, Lorenza, are known for their tracking abilities; they and their two living bloodhounds, along with a single shimmering ghost dog, are often called upon to find missing people. Although Shane knows her small family would benefit from being paid for these services–just a few short years ago, they lost their home, father, and grandparents in quick succession–Lorenza “never charge[s] people money for rescue jobs.” When 16-year-old Donnie and 10-year-old Bobby go missing, Lorenza is called to help. Then Lorenza herself disappears. Shane, her younger brother, Marcos, and her grandpa Louis rush to help locate the three missing people.
Little Badger’s beguiling novel includes stories within stories that enrich the main narrative, telling tales whose monumental purposes are “to be shared and remembered.” She entices readers by creating a world where monsters and “powerful magics” exist alongside actual history. Rovina Cai once again gracefully illustrates Little Badger’s work with delicate line drawings that act as chapter headings. Intergenerational relationships form the basis of this wonderful novel, as does Shane’s sense that her family–and their ghost animals–are looking out for her. Here’s hoping readers will receive more sequels, prequels, or spin-offs that take place in this fresh, compelling world.

2024 Aurora Award Nominations

May 032024
 

The 2024 Aurora Award Nominations are in and we’re excited to see so many DMLA authors on this fantastic list of nominees!

Best Novel:

  • The Valkyrie, Kate Heartfield, HarperVoyager

Best Novelette/Novella:

  • “The Most Strongest Obeah Woman of the World”, Nalo Hopkinson, Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, Random House

Best Short Story:

  • “At Every Door A Ghost”, Premee Mohamed, Communications Breakdown, MIT Press

Best Related Work:

  • No One Will Come Back for Us and Other Stories, Premee Mohamed, Undertow Publications
  • Skin Thief: Stories, Suzan Palumbo, Neon Hemlock Press

Starred Review: RAKESFALL by Vajra Chandrasekera

May 022024
 

Library Journal: Leveret and Annelid star in a television show with a bloody finale; Vidyucchika is stalked by the corpse of the boy she betrayed; Viramunda hunts down her betrayer on a sun-scorched Earth. This novel is a sweeping slipstream epic that follows two intertwined personalities as they recur in new guises through time, moving from the mythic past to modern Sri Lanka to a far-future Earth abandoned by humanity. One of them always dies, but is there an escape from the cycle—and should they take it if there is? Chandrasekera challenges readers but rewards them with a breathtaking narrative that invokes sci-fi, fantasy, and myth to express the endless struggle of revolution. As they recur throughout worlds and time lines that draw inspiration from South Asian culture and religion, the duo at the story’s heart are reshaped by their experiences until they reach a conclusion that guarantees the fight will go on.

VERDICT In Chandrasekera’s (The Saint of Bright Doors) newest, the characters’ journey through fantastical worlds across millennia is reminiscent of This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Recommended for fans of ambitious speculative fiction that tackles systems of oppression in fresh ways.

April Translation Deals

Apr 302024
 

Czech rights to LJ Andrews’s THE EVER KING, to Albatros Media, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier.

French rights to Nebula Award winner Premee Mohamed’s NO ONE WILL COME BACK FOR US and WE SPEAK THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN, to L’Atalante, by Sarah Dray at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Michael Curry.

Hebrew rights to New York Times bestselling author Anne Bishop’s VISION IN SILVER, MARKED IN FLESH, and ETCHED IN BONE, books 3-5 in the Others series, to Alma Books, by Beverley Levit at The Israeli Association Of Book Publishers Ltd in association with Michael Curry for Jennifer Jackson.

Italian rights to Annika Martin’s THE GRUMPY BILLIONAIRE to Triskell, by Stefania Fietta at Donzelli Fietta, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Polish rights to Robert Jackson Bennett’s THE FOUNDERS TRILOGY, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi, in a three-book deal, on behalf of Katie Shea Boutillier for Cameron McClure.

Polish rights to Hugo Award finalist Vajra Chandrasekera’s THE SAINT OF BRIGHT DOORS and RAKESFALL, to Czarna Owca, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry.

Ukrainian rights to Nebula Award winner Premee Mohamed’s THE BUTCHER OF THE FOREST and BENEATH THE RISING, to Zhorzh, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava i prevodi in association with Michael Curry.

Starred Review: SHEINE LENDE by Darcie Little Badger

Apr 222024
 

School Library Journal: This prequel to Elatsoe features Ellie’s grandmother Shane, a 17-year-old Lipan Apache, and further expands upon the strange and unique world. Shane and her mother track down missing persons using ghost dogs (familiar to those who’ve read Elatsoe), even when the families can’t pay them. This means Shane is used to barely scraping by, her deep practicality almost at odds with her unique power to raise the dead. When her mother disappears after tangling with a fairy ring, Shane will journey across the south and the world Below to find her. The narrative emphasizes generational trauma and the power of community with flashbacks, finding ways to ground the fantastical worldbuilding elements of vampires, fae, and ghosts in the culture and relationships Shane finds important. Little Badger artfully navigates Shane’s family history—from disasters to stolen land—and how they fight to reclaim their identity. While the novel stands alone, common elements from the first book reappear to add humor and tension. Part road trip, part classic quest, this novel manages to add fresh and exciting elements to the worldbuilding while retaining Elatsoe’s slightly spooky atmosphere. The flashbacks and changes in point-of-view slightly hinder the pacing, but readers will likely be too invested in Shane’s story to care. Shane and her family are Lipan Apache, with additional diversity in the supporting cast.

VERDICT: A wonderful addition to the Elatsoe universe with vital representation, worthy of any YA collection. Highly recommended.

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