Books

Mangatopia

“All Life is Genocide: the Philosophical Pessimism of Osamu Tezuka,” in Mangatopia: Essays on Manga and Anime in the Modern World, ed. Timothy Perper and Martha Cornog. Santa Barbara CA: ABC-Clio […]

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Seven Surrenders

The second volume of the Terra Ignota series, Seven Surrenders  continues Mycroft Canner’s history begun in Too Like the Lightning. In 2454, the leaders of the great globe-spanning Hives, which have replaced geographic nations, have long conspired to keep the world stable, but that balance is giving way.  In the face of global collapse a prostitute, a noble king, a despised criminal, a theological spy, and a hive of techno-utopian future-builders seek for a rumored miracle child in search of answers.

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Too Like the Lightning

Perfect for fans of Gene Wolfe, Jo Walton, Robert Charles Wilson and Kim Stanley Robinson, Too Like The Lightning is a challenging philosophical and political science fiction epic. Much like Homer telling of heroic deeds and wine dark seas, Mycroft Canner’s narration will draw you into the world of Terra Ignota—a world simmering with gender politics and religious fervor just beneath the surface, on the brink of revolutionary change.

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The Will to Battle

The Will to Battle is the third book in the Terra Ignota series.  In Books 1 and 2, convict Mycroft brought us his history of the seven days of change that remade the world.  Now comes his chronicle of the days that follow, reporting the events at the start of the new world, as the remnants of the old cling to the structures of their civilization and maneuver for advantage in the new order.

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Perhaps The Stars

Perhaps The Stars is the fourth and final novel in the Terra Ignota series.  World Civil War engulfs humanity in a struggle for the shape of the future.  Soldiers walk the world for the first time in centuries, accompanied by living legends, artificial intelligences, and strange gods whose conflict is known only to the innermost circle of world influencers.  Mycroft and 9A bring their dedicated Reader to the conclusion of war and the dawn of the newly-shaped future.

 

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Hearthfire

Hearthfire is Ada Palmer’s new Viking Mythology–focused novel series, with two books planned and an estimated publication date for early 2026, from Tor.

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Inventing the Renaissance

In Inventing the Renaissance, acclaimed historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on what makes this epoch so captivating. Her witty and irreverent journey through the fantasies historians have constructed about the period show how its legend derives more from later centuries’ mythmaking than from the often-grim reality of the period itself. She examines its defining figures and movements: the enduring legacy of Niccolò Machiavelli, the rediscovery of the classics, the rise of the Medici and fall of the Borgias, the astonishing artistic achievements of Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Cellini, the impact of the Inquisition, and the expansion of secular Humanism. Drawing on her popular blogs and writing with her characteristic energy and wit, Palmer presents the Renaissance as we have never seen it before. Colloquial, funny and brilliant, this is a work of deep scholarship that will make you alternately laugh and cry.

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Trace Elements

Long ago, in the 1920s, a conversation started in the letter columns of pulp science fiction magazines. Fans began debating what this stuff was, what it’s doing, how it’s different from other genres, why we like it so much, what we should call it, and whether robots could actually juggle. This conversation continues, and in Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Jo Walton and Ada Palmer both engage with it and trace elements of it across time.

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