Most Popular Books by Catherynne Valente

A glorious retelling of the Russian folktale Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless, set in a mysterious version of St. Petersburg during the first half of the 20th century.

A New York Times bestselling author offers a brilliant reinvention of one of the best-known fairy tales of all time with Snow White as a gunslinger in the mythical Wild West. Forget the dark, enchanted forest. Picture instead a masterfully evoked Old West where you are more likely to find coyotes as the seven dwarves. Insert into this scene a plain-spoken, appealing narrator who relates the history of our heroine’s parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That Sings, in marriage to him. Although her mother’s life ended as hers began, so begins a remarkable tale: equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have. Filled with fascinating glimpses through the fabled looking glass and a close-up look at hard living in the gritty gun-slinging West, this is an utterly enchanting story…at once familiar and entirely new.

\"The Candide of our #@$\*%?! age.\"— Ken Liu, award-winning author Catherynne M. Valente, the bestselling and award-winning creator of Space Opera and The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland returns with The Past Is Red, the enchanting, dark, funny, angry story of a girl who made two terrible mistakes: she told the truth and she dared to love the world. A Hugo Award finalist! An inaugural Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction finalist ! A Locus Award finalist! The future is blue. Endless blue...except for a few small places that float across the hot, drowned world left behind by long-gone fossil fuel-guzzlers. One of those patches is a magical place called Garbagetown. Tetley Abednego is the most beloved girl in Garbagetown, but she''s the only one who knows it. She''s the only one who knows a lot of things: that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place in the world, that it''s full of hope, that you can love someone and 66% hate them all at the same time. But Earth is a terrible mess, hope is a fragile thing, and a lot of people are very angry with her. Then Tetley discovers a new friend, a terrible secret, and more to her world than she ever expected. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Meet the Hell Hath Club. They''re the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who''s ever been \"refrigerated\": comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero''s storyline will progress. In their linked stories, they show that superheroes are our new fairy tales-- and these six women have their own stories to share.

Comfort Me With Apples is a terrifying new thriller from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of Gone Girl and Spinning Silver A Shirley Jackson Award finalist! A Locus Award finalist! Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect. It''s just that he''s away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect. But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband''s face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can''t quite meet her gaze.... But everything is perfect. Isn''t it? At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Fairyland Series (Books 1-3): The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Faiyland and Led the Revels There, and The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two \"One of the most extraordinary works of fantasy, for adults or children, published so far this century\"—Time magazine, on the Fairyland series Twelve-year-old September lives in Omaha, and used to have an ordinary life, until her father went to war and her mother went to work. One day, September is met at her kitchen window by a Green Wind (taking the form of a gentleman in a green jacket) who invites her on an adventure, implying that her help is needed in Fairyland. . . . Perfect for fans new to the series, the first three books of Catherynne M. Valente''s Fairyland Series are available together in this bundle. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making: Upon arriving in Fairyland, September learns the new Marquess is unpredictable and fickle, and also not much older than she is. Only September can retrieve a talisman the Marquess wants from the enchanted woods, and if she doesn''t . . . then the Marquess will make life impossible for the inhabitants of Fairyland. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There: September has longed to return to Fairyland after her first adventure there. And when she finally does, she learns that its inhabitants have been losing their shadows—and their magic—to the world of Fairyland Below. This underworld has a new ruler: Halloween, the Hollow Queen, who is September''s shadow. And Halloween does not intend to give Fairyland''s shadows back. The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two: September misses Fairyland and her friends Ell, the Wyverary, and the boy Saturday. She longs to leave the routines of home and embark on a new adventure. Little does she know that this time, she will be spirited away to the moon, reunited with her friends, and find herself faced with saving Fairyland from a Moon-Yeti with great and mysterious powers.

\"Severin Unck''s father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father''s films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction, in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets. Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe\"--Dust jacket flap.

2019 HUGO AWARD FINALIST, BEST NOVEL The Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy meets the joy and glamour of Eurovision in bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente''s science fiction spectacle, where sentient races compete for glory in a galactic musical contest…and the stakes are as high as the fate of planet Earth. A century ago, the Sentience Wars tore the galaxy apart and nearly ended the entire concept of intelligent space-faring life. In the aftermath, a curious tradition was invented—something to cheer up everyone who was left and bring the shattered worlds together in the spirit of peace, unity, and understanding. Once every cycle, the great galactic civilizations gather for the Metagalactic Grand Prix—part gladiatorial contest, part beauty pageant, part concert extravaganza, and part continuation of the wars of the past. Species far and wide compete in feats of song, dance and/or whatever facsimile of these can be performed by various creatures who may or may not possess, in the traditional sense, feet, mouths, larynxes, or faces. And if a new species should wish to be counted among the high and the mighty, if a new planet has produced some savage group of animals, machines, or algae that claim to be, against all odds, sentient? Well, then they will have to compete. And if they fail? Sudden extermination for their entire species. This year, though, humankind has discovered the enormous universe. And while they expected to discover a grand drama of diplomacy, gunships, wormholes, and stoic councils of aliens, they have instead found glitter, lipstick, and electric guitars. Mankind will not get to fight for its destiny—they must sing. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes have been chosen to represent their planet on the greatest stage in the galaxy. And the fate of Earth lies in their ability to rock.

From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland comes Catherynne M. Valente''s dark fantasy tale \"L’Esprit de L’Escalier\

A woman who dreams of machines. A paper lantern that falls in love. The most compelling video game you’ve never played and that nobody can ever play twice. This collection of Catherynne M. Valente’s stories and poems with Japanese themes includes the lauded novella “Silently and Very Fast,” the award-nominated “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Space/Time,” and “Ghosts of Gunkanjima”—which originally appeared in a book smaller than your palm, published in a limited edition of twenty-four. Also included are two new stories: the semiautobiographical, metafictional, and utterly magical “Ink, Water, Milk” and the cinematic, demon-haunted “Story No. 6.”

In the Cities of Coin and Spice and In the Night Garden introduced readers to the unique and intoxicating imagination of Catherynne M. Valente. Now she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger’s kiss.… Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

Catherynne M. Valente enchanted readers with her spellbinding In the Night Garden. Now she continues to weave her storytelling magic in the next book of Orphan’s Tales—an epic of the fantastic and the exotic, the monstrous and mysterious, that will transport you far away from the everyday. . . . Her name and origins are unknown, but the endless tales inked upon this orphan’s eyelids weave a spell over all who listen to her read her secret history. And who can resist the stories she tells? From the Lake of the Dead and the City of Marrow to the artists who remain behind in a ghost city of spice, here are stories of hedgehog warriors and winged skeletons, loyal leopards and sparrow calligraphers. Nothing is too fantastic, anything can happen, but you’ll never guess what comes next in these intimately linked adventures of firebirds and djinn, singing manticores, mutilated unicorns, and women made entirely of glass and gears. Graced with the magical illustrations of Michael Kaluta, In the Cities of Coins and Spice is a book of dreams and wonders unlike any you’ve ever encountered. Open it anywhere and you will fall under its spell. For here the story never ends and the magic is only beginning. . . .

This original short story tells the tale of how a girl named Mallow defeated King Goldmouth with the help of the Red Wind, Mr. Map, and many fairyland friends new and old--from Catherynne M. Valente, author of the children''s fantasy sensation The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In the kingdom of Fairyland-Below, preparations are underway for the annual Revels . . . but aboveground, the creatures of Fairyland are in no mood for a party. It has been a long time since young September bid farewell to Fairyland, and she is excited to see it again; but upon her return she is shocked to find that her friends have been losing their shadows, and therefore their magic, to the kingdom of Fairyland-Below... It spells certain disaster and September won''t stand for it. Determined to make amends, she travels down into the underworld where, among creatures of ice and moonlight, she encounters a face she recognizes all too well: Halloween, the Hollow Queen. Only then does September realize what she must do to save Fairyland from slipping into the mundane world forever. Come and join in the Revels with September and her friends. But be warned: in Fairyland-Below, even the best of friends aren''t always what they seem . . . Praise for The Girl Who Circumnavigated Farilyand in a Ship of Her Own Making: ''A glorious balancing act between modernism and the Victorian Fairy Tale, done with heart and wisdom.'' Neil Gaiman. ''An Alice in Wonderland for the 21st century... So effortless, so vivid, so funny. Every page has a phrase or observation to savour and her characters are wondrous creations.'' Sunday Telegraph. ''A charming modern fairytale...with a knowing twinkle in its eye.'' Telegraph. ''A whole esoteric world of whimsy - Alice meets the Wizard of Oz meets the Persephone story with a whiff of Narnia.'' Independent on Sunday. ''Bundles of imagination and wry wit.'' Financial Times.

Intertwines three narratives to tell the tale of the beginning of the end of the world: a younger, angrier Hagia, the blemmye-wife of John and Queen of Pentexore, Vyala, a lion-philosopher entrusted with the care of the deformed and prophetic royal princess, and John Mandeville, who in his many travels discovers the land of Pentexore.

Fantastist Catherynne M. Valente takes on the folklore of artificial intelligence in this brand new, original novella of technology, identity, and an uncertain mechanized future. Neva is dreaming. But she is not alone. A mysterious machine entity called Elefsis haunts her and the members of her family, back through the generations to her great-great grandmother?a gifted computer programmer who changed the world. Together Neva and Elefsis navigate their history and their future, an uneasy, unwilling symbiote. But what they discover in their dreamworld might change them forever . . .

A Book of Wonders for Grown-Up Readers Every once in a great while a book comes along that reminds us of the magic spell that stories can cast over us–to dazzle, entertain, and enlighten. Welcome to the Arabian Nights for our time–a lush and fantastical epic guaranteed to spirit you away from the very first page . . . Secreted away in a garden, a lonely girl spins stories to warm a curious prince: peculiar feats and unspeakable fates that loop through each other and back again to meet in the tapestry of her voice. Inked on her eyelids, each twisting, tattooed tale is a piece in the puzzle of the girl’s own hidden history. And what tales she tells! Tales of shape-shifting witches and wild horsewomen, heron kings and beast princesses, snake gods, dog monks, and living stars–each story more strange and fantastic than the one that came before. From ill-tempered “mermaid” to fastidious Beast, nothing is ever quite what it seems in these ever-shifting tales–even, and especially, their teller. Adorned with illustrations by the legendary Michael Kaluta, Valente’s enchanting lyrical fantasy offers a breathtaking reinvention of the untold myths and dark fairy tales that shape our dreams. And just when you think you’ve come to the end, you realize the adventure has only begun…. Praise for In the Night Garden “Cathrynne Valente weaves layer upon layer of marvels in her debut novel. In the Night Garden is a treat for all who love puzzle stories and the mystical language of talespinners.”—Carol Berg, author of Daughter of Ancients “Fabulous talespinning in the tradition of story cycles such as The Arabian Nights. Lyrical, wildly imaginative and slyly humorous, Valente''s prose possesses an irrepressible spirit.”—K. J. Bishop, author of The Etched City “Astonishing work! Valente’s endless invention and mythic range are breathtaking. It’s as if she’s gone night-wandering, and plucked a hundred distant cultures out of the air to deliver their stories to us.”—Ellen Kushner, author of Thomas the Rhymer “Refreshingly original in both style and form, In the Night Garden should delight lovers of myth and folklore.”—Juliet Marillier, author of the Sevenwaters trilogy

Clarkesworld is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction and fantasy magazine. Each month we bring you a mix of fiction (new and classic works), articles, interviews and art. Our January 2015 issue, supersized for our 100th issue, contains: Original Fiction by Aliette de Bodard (\"Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight\"), Tang Fei (\"A Universal Elegy\"), Naomi Kritzer (\"Cat Pictures Please\"), Kij Johnson (\"The Apartment Dweller''s Bestiary\"), Zhang Ran (\"Ether\"), Catherynne M. Valente (\"The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild\"), and Jay Lake (\"An Exile of the Heart\"). Classic stories by Damien Broderick (\"This Wind Blowing, and This Tide\"), and Karl Schroeder (\"Laika''s Ghost\"). Non-fiction by Jason Heller (Song for a City-Universe: Lucius Shepard''s Abandoned Vermillion), an interview with Xia Jia, an Another Word column by Cat Rambo, and an editorial by Neil Clarke.

The author''s first full-length poetry collection.