#book-birthday — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #book-birthday, aggregated by home.social.
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The Curve of the World: Out Today!
The Curve of the World by Vonda McIntyre (Aqueduct: Seattle, 2026)
Buy the Book
From the Publisher | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
About the Book, and Vonda
The Curve of the World is Vonda McIntyre’s last gift to us, and it is magnificent. In this alternate history of the ancient world, where Minoans build a globe-spanning trading community, Vonda has taken up the challenge of her good friend Ursula K. Le Guin and become a dreamer of a wider reality, creating a glorious vision of a working world. The Curve of the World is the sum and summit of all Vonda McIntyre was as a writer and as a human being, a marvellous vision of how the world might have been, perhaps once was, and might, still, one day be. The world needs this novel.
But don’t read this book because it’s Good For You. Read it because it’s a real story about a genuine alternative to our world featuring true grownups—and all the delights and, well, ‘learning opportunities’ attendant on that. Seriously, reading this book feels like sitting by a driftwood fire at dusk, while the waves slish and salt-scented breeze dries the tears of joy on your cheeks—the kind of joy that comes from feeling peace and rightness and rootedness in a world just waiting for you to walk it.
Don’t take my word for it. Go read this review on Salon Futura, or this Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly. Or see below for other writers’ praise.
I loved Vonda. In 2019 she fought to stay alive to do her final rewrite—of a novel she began in the early aughts but then abandoned when she felt dispirited by her career. (I have a lot to say about this, but not here.) Kelley and I were delighted when sometime after she was Guest of Honour at the 2015 Worldcon (2016? I don’t remember) she told us she was working on it again. Not so very long after that, she gave us the first complete draft to read. We did, and as always between long-time writer friends, we had many long conversations about what worked and what could be better.
She went back to work on it again. But then she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and suddenly the clock was ticking—ticking very, very fast.
Vonda fought to stay alive to finished this book. It was just days after she saved the file that she entered the final days of round-the-clock hospice care at home. Sadly, my father died during that time so we couldn’t be here for her final days—we had to fly to the UK to deal with family stuff, Dad’s estate etc—but we’d said our goodbyes. I only wish she could be here to see this day. Please buy the book.
Praise
”A gentle elegiac tone pervades this stunning posthumous historical fantasy from multi–Hugo and Nebula award winner McIntyre (Dreamsnake), who died in 2019. In ancient Crete, Iakinthu, a former bull dancer, is at the apex of her second profession as chief diplomat-trader of her seafaring nation. To fulfill Minoan tradition, she must take her adopted son, Rhenthizu, to meet his birth mother in a faraway land no Minoan has ever visited, after which he will choose which woman to live with. Their epic journey plays out as a feminist odyssey through six distinctive and mostly matriarchal cultures, superbly constructed around permutations of myth and legend. McIntyre’s scene-setting is lush and immersive, and her finely drawn, women-led cast leaps off the page as they confront obstacles with wit and wisdom. This sensitive and captivating voyage of discovery is a fitting capstone to a remarkable career.”
—Publishers Weekly, May 2026“The Curve of the World is magnificent, a glorious vision of a wider reality: a world in which global commerce and fairness are not a contradiction in terms. It is the sum and summit of all Vonda McIntyre was as a writer and human being, her last, best gift to a world in sore need of hope.”
—Nicola Griffith, author of Ammonite and Hild“I loved this book! It’s a glorious adventure with a heart as big as the world! Iakinthu Gephyra is a diplomat, trader, explorer, and the ‘bridge between people’ who strives to understand and accept cultures that are not her own. To find the family of her adopted child, she sets forth on the most difficult voyage her people have ever undertaken, sailing beyond the Sunset Sea and across the Nameless Ocean. A fascinating exploration of culture, family, and identity, about finding your way and discovering where you belong.”
—Pat Murphy, author The Adventures of Mary Darling and The Wild Girls“A vivid, luminous novel. As Minoan traders travel the ancient world, McIntyre brings to richly imagined life six distinctive cultures of antiquity, all touched with magic. The characters are so real that I could see, feel, even smell them, and I passionately wanted each to succeed at their various quests. The Curve Of The World is a wonderful capstone to a storied career.”
—Nancy Kress, author of Observer“Vonda takes us from the known world, a world with known dangers and known comforts, into the unknown, the wild but civilized West. As she herself looked ahead to the journey from life into death, she opens to us a world filled with unrealized possibilities. This is a marvelous book of the civilizations that could have been.”
—Eileen Gunn, author of Stable Strategies for Middle Management and Questionable Practices“The Curve of the World is full of daring, and rich and rare invention, but feeling true, as far as can be known, to the mysterious, apparently/ probably women-centered, ancient Minoan culture. I loved the giving of beautiful gifts, between chance voyagers meeting on the ocean. So much better than mere trade. A wonderful book.”
#bookBirthday #books #novel #publication #THECURVEOFTHEWORLD #VONDANMCINTYRE
—Gwyneth Jones, author of Life and Bold as Love -
Happy #BookBirthday to ONCE UPON A TAIL by Audrey Perrott, illus. by me!
Am very happy with this book as it is the first, published, (junior) graphic novel I've worked on. Which means I (finally) get to call myself a published comic book artist!
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Happy book birthday to me! To celebrate, here’s 75% off at Barnes and Noble (US only, sorry!). Use code BNPBIRTHDAY at checkout.
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Dear Reader: a note about SHE IS HERE
I have a new book coming VERY SOON. I, of course, want you to read it. I’m also trying to find time to prep the events—y’know, what bit/s to read, how to talk about the book—before those events actually begin. Which means I’ve been working out how to talk about the book.
I thought you might like to see what I came up with.
Dear Reader,
Novelists learn very early in their careers to summarise every new book with a pithy phrase. (My first novel Ammonite: “Change or die.”) But today, less than a month before the publication of She Is Here, I am still struggling to define it. Perhaps that’s because it’s not a novel—nor all fiction, nor even prose. Not even text.
She Is Here is a selection of various published and unpublished creations spanning my career from before the publication of that first novel through to today. The fiction ranges from very short, to very early, to a novella about the magic of music published here for the first time. The poems were written to express emotion in private—grief, refusing ableism, dangerous lust, and the despair of degenerative illness. None are previously published—in fact, this marks the first publication of any of my poems anywhere. Similarly, I made the art purely for its own sake—in this case, images (very) loosely inspired by the illuminations of Early Medieval gospels. The non-fiction ranges from manifesto to Op-Ed to epistolary criticism to musings on etymology and the double-edged tool that is branding. Different facets from different eras of my creative life.
That long-ago tagline, “Change or die,” was perfect for Ammonite. More than 30 years later I find it has become the bedrock principle of my life. Writers are often advised to write what we know. I believe, rather, that we write from our deepest self, from who we are. If we want our work to change and grow, we must, too. Life is change—constant discovery.
The last words of “Glimmer,” the shortest fiction in the book, are “She is here. She has arrived.” The narrator has made a galaxy-spanning journey through time and space, past reality—astonishing, impossible—a miraculous achievement. But the achievement, the arrival, isn’t the point; the rest of her life is about to begin. Because it’s always about to begin.
She Is Here, then, is a snapshot of a moment in time, containing, as do all of us, bits of the past, present and future. A kind of creative Commonplace Book.
She is here. I am here. But where, exactly, is that? I have no idea; that’s the point! The joy lies in continuing to find out…If you like the sound of that, perhaps you’d like to join me for one of those events in Seattle or Edmonds or virtually, before or during publication. I’m curious about what aspect of the book you’d like to know more about—so if you have an opinion, comment, or question, just drop it here.
Meanwhile, feel free to pre-order the book. Or put a hold on it at your library. It’s all good.
#bookBirthday #essays #interview #novella #poems #publication #sheIsHere #shortFiction #zoomorphics
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Happy book birthday to this marvel (biased)! 🥳
I love all books in this series equally, but I think this one has the most solid plot. It definitely has the best cover. Whether that's because of the subtle foreshadowing or the main attraction, well... can you really blame a girl? 😘 😆 🥰
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At last! My translation of Michio Hoshino's The Traveling Tree is out today in the UK! I’ve been dying to translate this beautiful book ever since I learned to read Japanese over fifteen years ago. Now it’s finally out there in the world.
Read my thoughts about the release here:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-178239049Or purchase a copy here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Travelling-Tree-international-bestseller-Japan-ebook/dp/B0DP6GSYHP/ref=sr_1_1#travel #memoir #japaneseliterature #essaycollection #japanese #translation #bookrelease #bookbirthday #today
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We had a blast last night at the Earth Day Eve launch of Through the Portal and The Origins of Desire in Orchid Fens. Lynn Hutchinson Lee even brought spring peepers with her to set the swampy vibe.
Orchid is now available everywhere books are sold! Congrats Lynn!
Purchase links in the thread!
#bookbirthday #publicationday #canadianbooks #canadianliterature #canlit #canadianauthor #romanyauthor #fantasy #horror #speculativefiction #folklore #literaryfiction #books #bookstodon
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