Today is the official release date forThe House of Discarded Dreams
by Ekaterina Sedia
Vimbai, who studies invertebrate zoology because of a fascination with horseshoe crabs, moves into the house on the beach in order to escape her Zimbabwean immigrant mother’s intensity; she finds something strange and beautiful. There are two roommates: Zach, who has a pocket universe where his hair should be, and Maya, who works in an Atlantic City casino. Vimbai’s dead grandmother haunts them, a ghostly presence who tells Zimbabwean children’s stories and does the dishes. When the house comes unmoored and drifts away to sea, Vimbai must bargain with ghostly horseshoe crabs, untangle the many and varied stories that have come loose in the vast worlds of the house, and find a way home. From Maya’s urban nightmares to Vimbai’s African urban legends, the house is filled with danger and beauty and unexpected magic. On one level, this is a reflection of ancient fairy tales and legends; on the other, it’s a perfectly straightforward tale of finding oneself in a bizarre world. Either way, Sedia’s prose is a pleasure, her story a lovely place to have spent time, even with the horrors her characters face. — Booklist
Also available today METAtropolis: Cascadia
METAtropolis: Cascadia is the creation of Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee Jay Lake; Mary Robinette Kowal, winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; New York Times best-selling author Tobias S. Buckell; Hugo Award winner Elizabeth Bear; Aurora Award winner Karl Schroeder; and critically acclaimed author Ken Scholes. The team of narrators is any Star Trek fan’s dream: Rene Auberjonois (“Odo”); Kate Mulgrew (“Capt. Kathryn Janeway”); Wil Wheaton (“Wesley Crusher”); Gates McFadden (“Dr. Beverly Crusher”); Jonathan Frakes (“Cmdr. William Riker”); and LeVar Burton (“Geordi La Forge”). Jay Lake, who also served as Project Editor, introduces this stunning sequel, written and produced exclusively for digital audio.
Oh! A new Ekaterina Sedia book! Must have! I prefer to avoid Amazon, but it appears to be on Amazon only, and I’ve been looking for something to pair up with Rigor Amortis anyway (which also is Amazon only) for free shipping purposes.
In weird news, though, Amazon is reporting that the book will arrive sometime between January and March. Hopefully that is just Amazon being weird and very very wrong…
I’ll make the publisher aware of it — they had copies for sale at WFC so I know it’s not an availability issue.
Also available from the fine folks at Powell’s. Here.
There’s also an unabridged audio edition.
Oooooh. I hadn’t realized Sedia had a new book due out! Yay!
cover art
Nice picture on the first one…hate the font.