Whoa. Three new releases this week, which I believe is the most I’ve ever had in one week, ever, in my career.
With the changes on Twitter and the expansion of Substack with Chat and Notes, I see a lot of newsletters that are increasingly substantive (and I’m glad they are). For the last few months this newsletter has focused on releases and pre-orders and news about forthcoming releases (and I hope more news that I can tell you soon).
Any writing I’ve done on craft and reflecting on my own body of work I’ve kept on my Patreon because I don’t have enough time to manage writing essays and posts for both platforms. To wit: I very much appreciate those of you who have subscribed to this newsletter and are checking out what’s been going on with my career. It’s been a rough couple of years and your support has kept me going. Thank you.
I hope to write a little more about the difficulties of publishing in these present days, as if publishing hasn’t always been a solid uphill climb in a blizzard.
Let’s be real: Writing is hard. Well, okay, sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s discouraging. Sometimes I despair. Sometimes it is absolute joy, or I smile smugly at how clever I’m being. Everything all at once, in succession, overlapping. Why on earth do I write? I wonder. Yet here I am, the urge to write, the habit of writing, the desire, so deeply woven into my bones that I can’t imagine not writing. Who would I be? I don’t even know.
That’s a bit of a long introduction to the meat of this week’s newsletter:
FURIOUS HEAVEN is finally out in the USA/Canada region in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook, published by Tor Books. (Yes, that’s Sun and Persephone, standing side by side against a background of stars, in a cover by Chris McGrath.)
FINALLY.
It’s been a road, and here we are at last.
I hope you read and (possibly) love this dreadnought of a novel, a massive epic with a hundred parts, maybe a thousand, probably the most complex single volume novel I’ve ever written. I wrote it to have a standalone narrative architecture and to also be a sequel to UNCONQUERABLE SUN. I’m proud of it. Writing it exhausted me, and challenged me, and I’m proud of the work I did. I offer it with all humility and also, frankly, there’s some great stuff in this book and an incredible number of sly easter eggs plus more dinosaur proverbs than you can shake a stick at.
More info here at the Macmillan site.
The UK/Commonwealth version by Head of Zeus is already available, so go to town!
NOTE: Tor Books is holding a Goodreads Sweepstakes for 5 (five) print copies of UNCONQUERABLE SUN, if you haven’t read it yet, or if you know someone who would be interested in entering.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
I’m very excited about this release. If you have been waiting and hoping for an audio release for these two novellas (bundled as one item), here you go. The narrators are the excellent voice actors Sharon Freedman and Kate Rudd, respectively. I’m delighted.
AND YET WE ARE NOT DONE!
What on earth? Anyway, book six of Crown of Stars, IN THE RUINS, is also out this week on audio, with the fantastic Shiromi Arserio, who has narrated the entire series and will be recording the seventh and final volume soon for a September release.
IN THE RUINS audiobook is produced by Tantor Media and available wherever audiobooks are sold.
That’s it. That’s enough!
Finn barks for you.
Thank you. As always, I could not do this without you.
Kate Elliott (exhausted but so far unbowed)
I just finished today, and I'm not ashamed to say you have completely disrupted my June. I have historical documents to read, I have a planned update to add my analysis to some tumblr posts about the series, and I will take a day of grieving that the third book isn't available already.
The history I've read has me worried about future plot points. The most prickly of those I have hope will be fine (Ptolemy and Seleucus. Ptolemy and Krateros. Ptolemy and Antigonus? Ptolemy just in general).
Thank you for this book! Thank you for this series! Thank you for giving so many characters that I love so much, that when I read about their historical analogs I'm super angry that history isn't perfect!
<3 <3 <3
OMG was this book good. I read the first volume and was hooked. This one takes the first and raises the stakes and doubles them. What I love is that the characters are so three-dimensional that I can actually keep them straight in my mind. Many books/series that have so many characters they need a glossary. Not necessary here! What an astonishing blend of sci/fi, military and character-driven passion/romance.
The whole gate tech and Persephone's relationship to it boggles my mind right now. Sun and her companions are such a wonderful band of companions. See - I didn't say band of men. This is so much better!