New Releases by Margo Lanagan

A beautiful hardcover edition to celebrate the 35th anniversary of everyone''s all-time favourite Australian beach book, by much-loved author Alison Lester, and the release of the beautiful feature film.

Even time travel can’t unravel love Time-travel is a way for writers to play with history and imagine different futures – for better, or worse. When romance is thrown into the mix, time-travel becomes a passionate tool, or heart-breaking weapon. A time agent in the 22nd century puts their whole mission at risk when they fall in love with the wrong person. No matter which part of history a man visits, he cannot not escape his ex. A woman is desperately in love with the time-space continuum, but it doesn’t love her back. As time passes and falls apart, a time-traveller must say goodbye to their soulmate. With stories from best-selling and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Alix E. Harrow and Nina Allan, this anthology gives a taste for the rich treasure trove of stories we can imagine with love, loss and reunion across time and space. Including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan Coleman, Margo Lanagan, Sameem Siddiqui, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, Ellen Klages

Dachshund droids, mad crones, shapeshifting children, a plethora of witches, dragonstalkers, familiars, slithering eels and, of course, bats, flit and fly through these pages, aided and abetted by Kathleen Jennings’s deft and inspired pencil drawings. Stray Bats is a glorious miscellany of vignettes based on poems by Australian women. While some of the pieces hie close to the originals in form and theme, some stray far, far from them even as Lanagan delights in playing with language, rhyme, and rhythm. This could be the perfect gift for that slightly otherworldly person in your life—or for yourself, when you need a moment of magic, a dip into darkness, a spark of light. For the reader who would like to explore further, there are a list of poems that inspired the author and notes on where those poems might be found.

X-Men meets Marissa Meyer’s Renegades when New York Times bestselling author of the Uglies series Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti in this explosive trilogy about six teens with unique abilities. Don’t call them heroes. But these six Californian teens have powers that set them apart. Take Ethan, a.k.a. Scam. He’s got a voice inside him that’ll say whatever you want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Which is handy, except when it isn’t—like when the voice starts gabbing in the middle of a bank robbery. The only people who can help are the other Zeroes, who aren’t exactly best friends these days. Enter Nate, a.k.a. Bellwether, the group’s “glorious leader.” After Scam’s SOS, he pulls the scattered Zeroes back together. But when the recue blows up in their faces, the Zeroes find themselves propelled into whirlwind encounters with ever more dangerous criminals. At the heart of the chaos they find Kelsie, who can take a crowd in the palm of her hand and tame it or let it loose as she pleases. Filled with action and drama, the Zeroes trilogy unites three powerhouse authors for a thrilling high-stakes series.

"In wild times and in wartime, in times of fear and illness, I goto Tintinnabula, where soft rains fall. Tintinnabula is a story about moving from discomfort to peace, from violence and uncertainty to a still, sure place. It reminds us that our best friend in hard times can often be ourselves."--Publisher''s description.

X-Men meets Marissa Meyer’s Renegades when New York Times bestselling author of the Uglies series Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti in the final book of an explosive trilogy about six teens with unique abilities. The Zeroes are in disarray. One of them has vanished. One of them is in prison. The rest are on the most-wanted list. And something big is brewing. Accused of murdering Swarm, Bellwether is in a high-security prison, isolated and unable to use his powers of influence. Flicker, Crash, Mob, and Scam are on the run as suspected domestic terrorists. And Agent Phan of the FBI has a secret weapon up his sleeve—a teenager with a superpower that the Zeroes haven’t encountered yet. After a daring breakout, the group is drawn to New Orleans, where celebrating Mardi Gras crowds promise enormous power to anyone who can channel it. There, an army of Zeroes is gathering around a charismatic leader—whose plans are nothing short of cataclysmic. Time is running out for the Zeroes, but they must learn to trust one another again if they want to avert the looming disaster.

The stunning conclusion to the New York Times bestselling YA superheroes series. The Zeroes are in disarray. One of them has vanished into thin air. One of them is in prison. The rest of them are on the most-wanted list. And something big is brewing. After defeating Swarm in a breath-taking stand-off, Nate has been arrested for his murder. In prison and isolated, he can''t use his powers of influence at all. Flicker, Chizara, Kelsie and Ethan are on the run and in hiding from the FBI who believe the Cambria Five are domestic terrorists. And Agent Phan and the FBI have a secret weapon up their sleeve - a teenager with a superpower that the Zeroes haven''t encountered yet. Meanwhile, Sonia Sonic and her growing band of weird-hunters are tracking inexplicable events across the country - and their investigations lead them to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, where the celebrating crowds promise enormous power to anyone who can channel it. Time is running out for the Zeroes, but they must learn to trust each other again and combine their powers for good - to avert the looming disaster. A brilliant, action-packed conclusion to the superb Zeroes series.

We all went down to the tar-pit, with mats to spread our weight.'' So begins ''Singing My Sister Down'', Margo Lanagan''s internationally acclaimed, award-winning short story. Singing My Sister Down and Other Stories brings together ten celebrated short stories, along with three new ones, from the extraordinarily talented author of Tender Morsels and Sea Hearts. A bride accepts her devastating punishment. A piece of the moon is buried. A ferryman falls into the Styx. Wee Willie Winkie brings a waking nightmare. A new father dresses a fallen warrior princess. A sniper picks off clowns one by one. Margo Lanagan''s stories will stay with you, haunting you with their quiet beauty and fine balance.

Unlucky thieves invade a house where Home Alone seems like a playground romp. An antique bookseller and a mob enforcer join forces to retrieve the Atlas of Hell. Postapocalyptic survivors cannot decide which is worse: demon women haunting the skies or maddened extremists patrolling the earth. In this chilling twenty-first-century companion to the cult classic Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, Ellen Datlow again proves herself the most masterful editor of the genre. She has mined the breadth and depth of ten years of terror, collecting superlative works of established masters and scene-stealing newcomers alike.

X-Men meets Marissa Meyer’s Renegades when New York Times bestselling author of the Uglies series Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti in the second book of an explosive new trilogy about six teens with unique abilities. They thought they’d already faced their toughest fight. But there’s no relaxing for the reunited Zeroes. These six teens with unique abilities have taken on bank robbers, drug dealers, and mobsters. Now they’re trying to lay low so they can get their new illegal nightclub off the ground. But the quiet doesn’t last long when two strangers come to town, bringing with them a whole different kind of crowd-based chaos. And hot on their tails is a crowd-power even more dangerous and sinister. Up against these new enemies, every Zero is under threat. Mob is crippled by the killing-crowd buzz—is she really evil at her core? Flicker is forced to watch the worst things a crowd can do. Crash’s conscience—and her heart—get a workout. Anon and Scam must both put family loyalties on the line for the sake of survival. And Bellwether’s glorious-leader mojo deserts him. Who’s left to lead the Zeroes into battle against a new, murderous army?

Told from separate viewpoints, this book tells the tale of teens Scam, Crash, Flicker, Anonymous, Bellwether, and Kelsie--all born in the year 2000 and living in Cambria, California--who have superhuman abilities that give them interesting but not heroic lives until they must work as a community to respond to a high stakes crisis.

On remote Rollrock Island, men go to sea to make their livings—and to catch their wives. The witch Misskaella knows the way of drawing a girl from the heart of a seal, of luring the beauty out of the beast. And for a price a man may buy himself a lovely sea-wife. He may have and hold and keep her. And he will tell himself that he is her master. But from his first look into those wide, questioning, liquid eyes, he will be just as transformed as she. He will be equally ensnared. And the witch will have her true payment. Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire, despair, and transformation. With devastatingly beautiful prose, she reveals characters capable of unspeakable cruelty, but also unspoken love.

This collection of unabridged, spectacular steampunk speculations includes several classics of the genre. These tales will sweep you away with their amazing automata, daring dirigibles, grinding gears, and scintillating steam as days long gone are infused with tech. In “Smoke City,” by Christopher Barzak, a woman comes to terms with the loss of her family to the child labor mills of the city. A doctor tries to cope with a strange plague terrorizing the citizens of London in Jeffrey Ford’s “Dr. Lash Remembers.” In “Machine Maid,” by Margo Lanagan, a sexually repressed wife gets revenge on her husband through a robot maid. Friedrich Engels strives to spread class revolution as a labor organizer for factory cyborg matchstick girls in Arbeitskraft, by Nick Mamatas. In “Ninety Thousand Horses,” by Sean McMullen, an acclaimed mathematician, with a murky past, is forced to spy for an industrialist prior to becoming Britain’s foremost rocket expert during World War II. An orphan boy builds an automaton, in an aging scientist’s laboratory, that becomes more than an idle companion in Cherie Priest’s “Tanglefoot (A Clockwork Century Story).” In “Clockwork Fairies,” by Cat Rambo, an English aristocrat courts a woman who would rather spend her time in a laboratory than at high society balls. At Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, in 1893, an Algerian bodyguard crosses paths with a disoriented naked man in Chris Roberson’s “Edison’s Frankenstein.”. In “A Serpent in the Gears,” by Margaret Ronald, a dirigible journeys to an isolated land and discovers people and animals merged with machine parts. Radio Jones finds a way to listen in on the Naked Brains, who rule the world, while Rudy the Red fights against the oppressors in “Zeppelin City,” by Michael Swanwick& Eileen Gunn.

A mesmerising selkie novel from multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed Australian author, Margo Lanagan - one of the most exciting voices in speculative fiction.

This well-received novel from a cast of acclaimed authors is now available in paperback! A video message from a dead person. A larcenous teenager. A man who can stick his left toe behind his head and in his ear. An epileptic girl seeking answers in a fairy tale. A boy who loses everything in World War II, and his brother who loses even more. And a family with a secret so big that it changes everything. The world''s best beloved authors each contribute a chapter in the life of the mysterious George "Gee" Keane, photographer, soldier, adventurer, and enigma. Under different pens, a startling portrait emerges of a man, his family, and his gloriously complicated tangle of a life.

Tender Morsels is a dark and vivid story, set in two worlds and worrying at the border between them. Liga lives modestly in her own personal heaven, a world given to her in exchange for her earthly life. Her two daughters grow up in this soft place, protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever—magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga’s refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?

“Ellen Datlow is the queen of anthology editors in America.”—Peter Straub With original stories by Jeffrey Ford, Pat Cadigan, Elizabeth Bear, Margo Lanagan, and others From Del Rey Books and award-winning editor Ellen Datlow, two of the most respected names in science fiction and fantasy, comes a collection of fifteen all-new short stories, plus a science fiction novella, that could count as a virtual “best of the year” anthology. Here you will find slyly twisted alternate histories, fractured fairy tales, topical science fiction, and edgy urban fantasy. In “Daltharee,” World Fantasy Award–winning author Jeffrey Ford spins a chilling tale of a city in a bottle—and the demented genius who put it there. In “Sonny Liston Takes the Fall,” John W. Campbell Award–winning author Elizabeth Bear pens a poignant and eerie requiem for the heavyweight forever associated with his controversial loss to Cassius Clay. From hot new writer Margo Lanagan comes “The Goosle,” a dark, astonishing take on Hansel and Gretel. In the novella “Prisoners of the Action,” Paul McAuley and Kim Newman take a trip down a rabbit hole that leads to a Guantanamo-like prison whose inmates are not just illegal but extraterrestrial. Many of the writers you’ll recognize. Others you may not. But one thing is certain: These stars of today and tomorrow demonstrate that the field of speculative fiction is not only alive and well—it’s better than ever. PLUS TWELVE MORE STORIES “The Elephant Ironclads” by Jason Stoddard “Ardent Clouds” by Lucy Sussex “Gather” by Christopher Rowe “North American Lake Monsters” by Nathan Ballingrud “All Washed Up While Looking for a Better World” by Carol Emshwiller “Special Economics” by Maureen F. McHugh “Aka St. Mark’s Place” by Richard Bowes “Shira” by Lavie Tidhar “The Passion of Azazel” by Barry N. Malzberg “The Lagerstätte” by Laird Barron “Gladiolus Exposed” by Anna Tambour “Jimmy” by Pat Cadigan

Margo Lanagan''s electrifying stories take place in worlds not quite our own, and yet each one illuminates what it is to be human. They are stories of yearning for more, and learning to live with what you have. Stories that show the imprint love leaves on us all. If you think you don''t like short fiction, that a story can''t have the depth or impact of a novel, then you haven''t read Margo Lanagan. A writer this startling and this original doesn''t come along very often. So for anyone who likes to be surprised, touched, unsettled, intrigued, or scared senseless, prepare to be dazzled by what a master storyteller can do in a few short pages.

As part of a public execution, a young boy forlornly helps to sing his sister down. . . . A servant learns about grace and loyalty from a mistress who would rather dance with Gypsies than sit on her throne. . . . A terrifying encounter with a demonic angel gives a young man the strength he needs to break free of his oppressor. . . . On a bleak and dreary afternoon a gleeful shooting spree leads to tragedy for a desperate clown unable to escape his fate. In each of Margo Lanagan''s ten extraordinary stories, human frailty is put to the test by the implacable forces of dark and light, man and beast. black juice offers glimpses into familiar, shadowy worlds that push the boundaries of the spirit and leave the mind haunted with the knowledge that black juice runs through us all.

A confronting, intensely moving story about the intricate bonds of friendship, the shock of a brutal death, the slow torment of grief, and the seeds of happiness.

A live animal leaping out of a video game? Unbelievable. And yet there it is in Macka''s lap: soft and smelly, alert and terrified, like a real animal; but also glowing with strange energy. Can she get it back into the game alive? And - if she goes in herself, can she get out? ''Intriguing, accessible and highly original.'' - Reading Time ''A fascinating mystery/adventure with a thought-provoking message.'' - Margaret Dunkle, Australian Bookseller and Publisher

Finn thinks he has trouble enough, hanging out alone on the streets of Kings Cross, until he stumbles on sinister figures pumping vile-smelling sludge into the drains. Then his life starts to get seriously weird. Who - or what - are these Tankermen? How can they disappear into solid rock? What Finn faces when he follows the Tankermen into their hideout is horrifying beyond his worst fears. This is a gripping fantasy adventure, written with style and assurance by the author of WildGame and Walking through Albert.