Jennifer Jackson – Literary Agent

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

“May and Libby came up with Princess X, a katana-wielding cartoon girl with a crown and red Chucks, on the day they met in fifth grade, and for the next several years of their friendship, they wrote enough stories about her to fill a closet. But then Libby and her mother die in a car accident, and May tries to move on with her life, but she can’t shake the feeling that not everything adds up about Libby’s death. Three years later, May notices a faded vinyl sticker that is unmistakably Princess X. Then she discovers a webcomic about her, which includes characters that look alarmingly like Libby and May, and clues that only May can decipher. With the help of her tech-savvy neighbor, Trick, May looks all over (and under) Seattle to uncover the truth about her best friend. Interspersed with Ciesemier’s webcomic-style illustrations, Priest’s YA debut is an engrossing cyberthriller packed with a puzzling mystery, crackerjack detective work, and an eerie, atmospheric sense of place. The unembellished style is a perfect match for the noir-lite tone, and May and Trick, whose banter crackles with energy, rival any team of gumshoes out there. Teens who roll their eyes at adults out of touch with Internet culture will eat this up.” — Booklist, Starred Review

Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files: WAR CRY

“To say I loved this book would be such an understatement. It’s a great, intensely fun, quick read that satisfied my Dresden Files itch in a year during which I’m not sure we’ll get a new novel in the series…That [these stand-alone Dresden comics] work so well says a lot about Butcher as an author, who I think is getting more comfortable writing for the comic medium with each subsequent project.” — Kirkus

The 2014 Locus Recommended Reading List includes Steles of the Sky by Elizabeth Bear (plus some of her short fiction). Also on the list is Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection by Jay Lake, as well as several stories by Yoon Ha Lee.

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear

“Bear is paying homage to the dime novels of the era, forerunners of pulp fiction packed with larger-than-life heroes, scheming villains, and gritty action. But she’s subtly subverting this tradition, just as much as she’s giving steampunk a gentle, loving twist. An African-American marshal and a transgender prostitute are just two members of the book’s diverse cast, and it’s clear that Bear is making a point about the way history, like literary subgenres, can steamroll over anyone who falls outside the norm. She makes that point engagingly and effortlessly. Karen Memory breezes by at a leisurely pace, a bracing yet charming adventure yarn that never feels forced, despite the brassy confidence of its delivery.” — NPR.org

The cover has been revealed for The Traitor Baru Cormorant, the debut novel from Seth Dickinson!

From the catalog copy:

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, young Baru Cormorant vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire’s civil service, and claw high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.

Sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it’s on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize. But winning the long game of saving her people may be far more costly than Baru imagines.

“Dickinson has written a poet’s Dune, a brutal tale of empire, rebellion, fealty, and high finance that moves like a rocket and burns twice as hot. The Traitor Baru Cormorant is a mic drop for epic fantasy.” – Max Gladstone, author of the Craft Sequence

“I do not gush about books often, because I’m picky in my loves and my ADD requires they basically do handstands to keep my attention. This is less of a handstand and more an entire fucking circus shooting ferrets with tiny capes and helmets out of antique cannons into kiddie pools filled with glitter while Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now plays at an ear-rupturing volume overhead. Sweet jesus, I forget how much I crave good prose.” – Bo Bolander, Campbell-nominated author of “And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead” and “Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring”

Look for Dickinson’s novel in both the US and the UK on September 15, 2015!