Tangleroot Palace, The - Tachyon Publications (original) (raw)
The Tangleroot Palace
by Marjorie Liu
ISBN: Print ISBN: 9781616963521: Digital ISBN: 9781616963538
Published: June 2021
Available Format(s): Trade Paperback and Digital
New York Times bestseller and Hugo, British Fantasy, Romantic Times, and Eisner award-winning author of the graphic novel, Monstress, Marjorie Liu leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her long-awaited debut story collection, dark, lush, and spellbinding short fiction you will find unexpected detours, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women.
[STARRED REVIEW] “A collection of short stories exploring the emotional complexity, diverse physicality, and layered sexuality of resourceful women. . . . The only drawback to these seven stories is that readers will want far more time in each world.”
—Kirkus
Briar, bodyguard for a body-stealing sorceress, discovers her love for Rose, whose true soul emerges only once a week. An apprentice witch seeks her freedom through betrayal, the bones of the innocent, and a meticulously-plotted spell. In a world powered by crystal skulls, a warrior returns to save China from invasion by her jealous ex. A princess runs away from an arranged marriage, finding family in a strange troupe of traveling actors at the border of the kingdom’s deep, dark woods.
Concluding with a gorgeous full-length novella, Marjorie Liu’s first short fiction collection is an unflinching sojourn into her thorny tales of love, revenge, and new beginnings.
Publishers Weekly Top-10 SF/F/H 2021 upcoming titles BookPage Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021 Fantasy Book Café 10 Best Books of 2022 _Inside My Library Mind_’s 2021 Book Releases to Get Excited Abou t
[STARRED REVIEW] “A collection of short stories exploring the emotional complexity, diverse physicality, and layered sexuality of resourceful women.In ‘Sympathy for the Bones,’ Clora is old Ruth’s unwilling apprentice witch in Kentucky, forced to murder men with hoodoo magic or surrender her soul. Having lost her family, Clora longs to know what it feels like to love and be loved, even as she plans her escape. Another kind of escape is brewing in ‘The Briar and the Rose,’ a retelling of ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ only this time the charming prince is a brown warrior-woman who must walk the dangerous line between freeing the woman she’s come to love and her duty to her mistress—the sorceress who inhabits Rose’s body six days out of seven. In ‘Call Her Savage,’ a striking magical alternate history, ex–Lady Marshall Xīng MacNamara—who comes from New China, on the Pacifica coast of an America allied with its Native peoples—must kill her former lover Maude in order to stop the Redcoats from colonizing the world. Rounding out the collection are a story about Amish vampires and a secret marriage in a plague-ridden future that gingerly explores trauma and strength; a gay wannabe-supervillain looking for a superhero to love him in a story that asks what true vulnerability can awaken; and a princess, determined to forge her own path through sentient trees and evil queens, who wrestles with how to remain true to duty, heart, and mind. Within each tale, author Liu gives a masterclass in the art of storytelling. She doesn’t waste a word or a comma, nor does she miss an opportunity to dive into what makes us human, no matter who we are or who we love. In the title novella, the protagonist learns that “some trees are bark and root, and some trees have soul and teeth.” So, too, will readers find that Liu’s writing is all ‘soul and teeth.’ Neither will release them quickly. The only drawback to these seven stories is that readers will want far more time in each world.”
—Kirkus
“The Tangleroot Palace is charming and ruthless. Tales that feel new yet grounded in the infinitely ancient, a mythology for the coming age.”
—Angela Slatter, author of The Bitterwood Bible
[STARRED REVIEW] “Liu (the Monstress series) charms with this spellbinding collection of six short stories and one novella. The standouts are “The Briar and the Rose,” a darkly fascinating retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” in which a female duelist discovers her witch employer is living in the stolen body of Princess Rose, and helps Rose to regain it; and “Call Her Savage,” a steampunk western set during the Opium Wars and following half-Chinese antiheroine Lady Marshal as she struggles to be the hero others need her to be. Also of note are the haunting and eerie, “Sympathy for the Bones”; “The Last Dignity of Man,” about a would-be supervillain who realizes he must be his own superman; and two stories set in the world of Liu’s Dirk & Steele paranormal romance series: the atmospheric historical fantasy, “Where the Heart Lives,” which serves as a prequel to the series, and the dystopian “After the Blood,” about Amish vampires, set in the series’s future. The title novella offers a more standard secondary world fantasy, about a runaway princess drawn to an enchanted forest, but uses this familiar plot to probe the character’s feelings of being trapped. Liu’s mastery of so many different subgenres astounds, and her ear for language carries each story forward on gorgeously crafted sentences. This is a must-read.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Gorgeous, with a lyricism akin to Ursula K. Le Guin and the dark fantasy sensibility of Neil Gaiman.”
—Strange Horizons
[STARRED REVIEW] “In The Tangleroot Palace, Marjorie Liu gathers six previously published short stories and an original novella in a powerful collection of speculative fiction, showcasing the talent that’s won her several Eisner and Hugo awards. With a range of themes and settings, the stories in The Tangleroot Palace showcase immersive world building and emotionally evocative prose, the same writing that has made her so successful in her paranormal romance novels and in powerhouse comics like Monstress (with Sana Takeda).”
—Shelf Awareness
“This is a superb collection from start to finish. Mysterious, beautiful and strange, harsh and charming, it fires the emotional palate.”
—Charles de Lint, author of the Newford series
[STARRED REVIEW] “Marjorie Liu’s haunting collection of short stories, The Tangleroot Palac e, is an astonishing foray into fantastical escapism. These are reworkings of older works of short fiction, and together they create both a love letter to Liu’s illustrious career and a curious and joy-filled glimpse into the future. Readers who want to be immersed in otherworldly adventures with feminist themes will find a gifted and enchanting guide in Liu.”
—BookPage
“I am utterly ashamed to say this is the first time I have read Liu’s work, but it won’t be the last. I was blown away by her skill. I loved every story, the steady pacing and reveal, what is revealed or withheld.”
—British Fantasy Society
“This is a superb collection from start to finish. Mysterious, beautiful and strange, harsh and charming. And timeless. Utterly timeless.”
—Fantasy & Science Fiction
“A spellbinding collection.”
—Book Riot
“Beautifully written, deeply engaging, and full of wonder and strong female characters_.”_ —Grimdark Magazine
“Stories in this volume evoke everyone from William Goldman to Tanya Huff, from Hayao Miyazaki to Kevin Smith.”
—Green Man Review
“Marjorie Liu is incredibly talented and this book gives a taste of all the things she’s capable of. She easily goes from horror to fairy tale to post-apocalyptic paranormal, and why not throw in some superhero-inspired story, a handful of zombies and a defiant princess in there.”
—SFF Reviews
“Rich and evocative tales with just the right amount of bite.”
—Kelley Armstrong, author of Led Astray
“The Tangleroot Palace is one of the best short story collections or anthologies I’ve ever read.”
—Fantasy Cafe
“Some authors excel at one thing; others can do it all. Whether it’s fairy tales or superheroes or the post-apocalypse, Liu always delivers, and with her own unique spin.”
—Marie Brennan, author of Driftwood
“Liu’s astonishing range reaches stunning heights of savagery and tenderness, with groundbreaking visions of fairy tales, alternate history, and high fantasy, even challenging the conventions of feminism itself. Longtime fans and new readers alike will be swept away by the tragic romance, nail-biting adventure, and dread-inducing terror found within these boundary-pushing texts, where representation is the key ingredient to supremely engaging storylines, accessible to all. . . . Liu flourishes as a transformative storyteller committed to inclusivity. Her effort to emphasize overlooked or ignored perspectives is integral to the ongoing evolution of fantasy literature. The Tangleroot Palace is just a small sample of her formidable skills, a multi-dimensional talent whose voice resounds with breathtaking force.”
—Cemetery Dance
“Short story collections are truly a savior for me whenever I’m struggling to read, and this one is one of my favorites!”
—Forever and Everly
“Excellent.”
—Book Lover’s Boudoir
“5/5 stars. Absolutely mesmerizing storytelling.”
—Ash and Books
“Vivid writing that lights up my brain. Evocative settings. Memorable characters engaged in dark struggles. When I read Marjorie Liu’s stories, I know I’m in the hands of a master.”
—Carrie Vaughn, author of the Kitty Norville series
“Liu’s dynamic writing style and clever story concepts are the real standouts—she is just as capable of producing evocative, romantic writing as she is pounding out gritty, electric scenes of violent revenge.”
—Locus
“Along with her remarkable versatility as a writer, it is above all this ability to make her readers question the seemingly obvious that sets Liu’s stories apart from others of the same kind.”
—Shoreline of Infinity
5/5 Stars. “Each tale brought something beautiful and totally original to the table and I truly felt completely immersed in every sentence Liu wrote.”
—A Series of Various Events
5/5 stars. “Each story is its own world, fully fleshed out, full of the scene-setting lush prose I expect from Liu.”
—K. Bird Lincoln, What I Should Have Said
“Liu’s stories gave me goosebumps, made me swoon, and at times cracked me up. This definitely a collection to have.”
—Southern Bookseller Review
Marjorie M. Liu is a bestselling novelist and comic book writer. She is the author of more than 19 novels, most notably the urban fantasy series, Hunter Kiss, and the paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele. She has twice received the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, for The Mortal Bone and Tiger Eye. Ms. Liu’s graphic novel work at Marvel includes Black Widow, Han Solo, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men. She is the co-creator of Monstress from Image Comics, which has won multiple Hugo, British Fantasy, and Harvey Awards. Ms. Liu was the first woman, and first woman of color, to win an Eisner Award in the Best Writer category.
At BookExpo, Ms. Liu was a featured speaker alongside Rachel Maddow, Ta-Nehesi Coats, and Malcolm Gladwell. She has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, MTV, and been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, Atlantic, and USA Today. She is a frequent lecturer and guest speaker, appearing on panels at San Diego Comic Con; the Tokyo Literary Festival; the New York Times Public Lecture series; Geeks Out; and the Asian American Writers Workshop.
Ms. Liu was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Seattle, and has lived in numerous cities in the Midwest, as well as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Prior to writing full-time, she was a lawyer. She currently lives in Boston, and teaches comic book writing at MIT.
Praise for Marjorie Liu
“Marjorie Liu is magic! Her writing is passionate, lyric, gritty, and riveting. She belongs high on everyone’s must-read list.”
—Elizabeth Lowell, author of Only Mine
“With each new book, Liu adds more depth and dimension to her world and more credence to her reputation as an exceptional talent.”
—Romantic Times
“If you have yet to add Liu to your must-read list, you’re doing yourself a disservice.”
—Booklist
Praise for Dirk and Steele series
“I didn’t just like this book, I LOVED this book. Anyone who loves my work should love it too.”
—New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan
“Once again, Liu has managed a brilliant blend of fantasy, action and romance in her latest Dirk & Steele novel . . . Liu brings her skewed universe to life with skill and conviction, grounding the comic-book plot with fully realized personalities and the workaday details of circus life . . . a fresh thrill for newcomers in the market for an extraordinary romance.”
—Publishers Weekly
Praise for the Hunter Kiss series
“Every bit as engrossing as The Iron Hunt, Darkness Falls surpasses its predecessor in terms of plotting, characters, and writing style. A highly recommended read for fans of urban fantasy, and for Ms. Liu’s paranormal romance fans who have yet to take the plunge.”
—The Book Smugglers
“A Wild Light is like a creepy-beautiful dream to read.”
—Hot Sauce Reviews
“This is the third Hunter Kiss novel in the series. If the first two are anything like this, I must find them, I must read them, inhale them . . . Any fan of the supernatural will love this book, as will any fantasy fan. I believe that every fan will find something within these pages that will resonate deep within them, and keep them up late, thinking about magic and mystery, demons and dreams.”
—The Lunar Gazette
“Amidst all the magic and the life or death struggles there is laughter and hope and a future waiting to be born. The next Hunter Kiss book will be an instant pre-order as soon as it comes to light.”
—All Things Urban Fantasy
Praise for Monstress
“Monstress, Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s wildly successful graphical epic, is great. Yep, “great” is definitely the word to use. No, brilliant. . . . Stuffed with intricate myths, dense history, crisscrossing political relationships and magical technology, the world of Monstress is everything a fantasy reader could want.”
—NPR Books
“[T]his is a book that will be wildly embraced by all fans of graphic literature.”
—School Library Journal
“With Monstress, the Chinese-American writer and her Japanese Illustrator now have a platform that allows them to represent the breadth of their cultures and aesthetic interstes; the writing and art blend influences ranging from Asian folklore to pop culture Kaiju like Godzilla and Pacific Rim, from 20th–century Shanghai to Victorian-flavored steampunk. Lui and Takeda have created a world both familiar and strangely fantastic.”
—LA Review of Books
“Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress might be the most ambitious comic book on the market. It takes guts to go all out and create a swirling fantasy adventure at a time when the industry is trending toward sci-fi, superhero, and more grounded stories. But in this case, that gamble has paid off.”
—VOX
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