At Fantasy Literature, we love fearless women!

Women are shining in every genre of speculative fiction, and it is no longer enough to say “Women are here.” Instead, #FearlessWomen everywhere are taking a stand to say “Women will thrive here.”

Highlighting major titles from bestselling authors V.E. Schwab, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Jacqueline Carey as well as titles from acclaimed and debut authors such as Mary Robinette Kowal, Tessa Gratton, Sam Hawke, and Robyn Bennis, #FearlessWomen is a coordinated social media celebration encouraging fans to start a dialogue about women in publishing, their worlds, their voices, and their unique stories.

Tor Books’ handles across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (@torbooks) are using the hashtags #FearlessWomen (and #FearlessFantasy and #FearlessSF) to promote excerpts, exclusive content, quizzes and giveaways. There will also be exclusive giveaways at BookCon, San Diego Comic-Con, and New York Comic Con. Follow Tor Books online, join the conversation — and get reading!

Jacqueline Carey is back with an amazing adventure not seen since her New York Times bestselling KUSHIEL’S LEGACY series. Lush and sensual, Starless introduces us to an epic world where exiled gods live among us, and a hero whose journey will resonate long after the last page is turned.

I was nine years old the first time I tried to kill a man…

Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert; yet there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him.

In the court of the Sun-Blessed, Khai must learn to navigate deadly intrigue and his own conflicted identity…but in the far reaches of the western seas, the dark god Miasmus is rising, intent on nothing less than wholesale destruction.

If Khai is to keep his soul’s twin Zariya alive, their only hope lies with an unlikely crew of prophecy-seekers on a journey that will take them farther beneath the starless skies than anyone can imagine.

And now, Fantasy Literature’s exclusive excerpt of Starless

I succeeded in finding my way to Three-Copper Quarter, mostly by virtue of the fact that I had but to go downward and south until there was nowhere else to go. Once there, I found myself hopelessly lost in its winding streets. It was a squalid labyrinth of unpaved alleys and crumbling clay-brick buildings. There was refuse underfoot, vegetable peelings and picked bones, and slab- sided dogs and scrawny boys fighting for the best scraps. Veiled women in homespun robes hurried about their business in knots of three or four, whispering to each other. Gaunt men with feverish eyes muttered offers of hashish at every corner.

 

Let your mind be like the eye of the hawk …

 

I slowed my steps, closed my eyes, and let my perceptions drift, drift like a hawk’s feather on the wind. I felt the breeze of a reaching hand at my side and turned to catch the wrist of the boy angling for the pocket of my robe.

 

“I didn’t do anything!” he said in a pleading whine, tugging against my grip. “Let me go!”

 

“I will if you can answer a question.” I lowered the scarf muffling my words. “Do you know where I might find the Mad Priest? The Priest of the Black Star?”

 

“Why should I?” His eyes widened. “Watery hell!  You’re the royal shadow, aren’t you?”

About Jacqueline Carey:
Jacqueline Carey is the author of the New York Times bestselling KUSHIEL’S LEGACY series of historical fantasy novels, THE SUNDERING epic fantasy duology, postmodern fables “Santa Olivia” and “Saints Astray,” and the AGENT OF HEL contemporary fantasy series. Carey lives in western Michigan.

And if you’re interested in seeing the exclusive excerpts featured at other blogs participating in the #FearlessWomen campaign, you can find their links here: This is a Metaphor, Dark Faerie Tales, Cherry Blossoms & Maple Syrup, SciFiChick, Books, Bones, & Buffy, The BiblioSanctum, Tenacious Reader, Itching for Books, and Across the Words.

Author

  • Jana Nyman

    JANA NYMAN, with us since January 2015, is a freelance copy-editor who has lived all over the United States, but now makes her home in Colorado with her dog and a Wookiee. Jana was exposed to science fiction and fantasy at an early age, watching Star Wars and Star Trek movie marathons with her family and reading works by Robert Heinlein and Ray Bradbury WAY before she was old enough to understand them; thus began a lifelong fascination with what it means to be human. Jana enjoys reading all kinds of books, but her particular favorites are fairy- and folktales (old and new), fantasy involving dragons or other mythological beasties, contemporary science fiction, and superhero fiction. Some of her favorite authors are James Tiptree, Jr., Madeleine L'Engle, Ann Leckie, N.K. Jemisin, and Seanan McGuire.