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Nominated for the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Series Moon, Jade, and other favorites from the Indigo Cloud Court return with two new novellas from Martha Wells. Martha Wells continues to enthusiastically ignore genre conventions in her exploration of the fascinating world of the Raksura. Her novellas and short stories contain all the elements fans have come to love from the Raksura books: courtly intrigue and politics, unfolding mysteries that reveal an increasingly strange wider world, and threats both mundane and magical. "The Dead City" is a tale of Moon before he came to the Indigo Court. As Moon is fleeing the ruins of Saraseil, a groundling city destroyed by the Fell, he flies right into another potential disaster when a friendly caravanserai finds itself under attack by a strange force. In "The Dark Earth Below," Moon and Jade face their biggest adventure yet; their first clutch. But even as Moon tries to prepare for impending fatherhood, members of the Kek village in the colony tree's roots go missing, and searching for them only leads to more mysteries as the court is stalked by an unknown enemy. Stories of Moon and the shape changers of Raksura have delighted readers for years. This world is a dangerous place full of strange mysteries, where the future can never be taken for granted and must always be fought for with wits and ingenuity, and often tooth and claw. With these two new novellas, Martha Wells shows that the world of the Raksura has many more stories to tell... Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.… (more)
User reviews
And the Raksuran characters don't disappoint either. Shapeshifters that have reptilian/winged forms and bipedal humanish "groundling" forms, they are predators and farmers, fierce fighters and loyal friends, doting parents and generous lovers. They live in complex societies in mountain-sized trees in the upper levels of a vast forest teeming with unknown and threatening life, but also really like to go on adventures. I mean, what's not to love?
"The Dead City," a novella, is one of Moon's adventures shortly after he first met the Fell. Traveling in a blur of confusion and depression, he meets up with some groundlings. Letting himself get pulled into the danger happening nearby allows him to reclaim purpose and direction.
The short story "Mimesis" follows Jade out in the forest with some of her warriors. When one of them goes missing, she goes off the rescue him, but going alone may not be the wisest thing.
"Trading Lesson" is a short story where Moon's previous experiences in the groundling world serve his colony some good when traders come to visit.
"The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-Ship Escarpment" is a short story about non Raksuran people's in another part of the Three Worlds who have agreed to broker paying a ransom to pirates. Will it be the last thing they ever do?
The final novella, "The Dark Earth Below," happens a year and a half after the events of "The Siren Depths." Jade is about to have her first clutch, Moon is terrified, and everyone is bored from the lack of adventures and challenges when the Kek at the foot of their mountain-tree signal for help. The Raksura get more involved with life in the bottom layers of the forest than may be good for them.
The Dead City is a prequel. Moon, having recently fled one disaster, is caught up in the troubles of a community threatened by strange miners. Moon is not in a great place mentally. Having read the
The Dark Earth Below is set after The Siren Depths (and after The Fallen World from Stories of the Raksura, volume one) . Moon is anxiously anticipating a momentous development -- along with the rest of the court (although Moon certainly wins the “most nervous” award) -- and in the meantime, investigates an issue concerning some neighbours. This story also has a bittersweet edge to it, but the most significant event is positive and personal, so it’s a lot more fluffy. I enjoyed the glimpses into life for the Indigo Cloud court.
Also notable: one of the short stories, “Mimesis”, is from Jade’s perspective!
Ghatli almost growled with frustration, but then said, “Right, yes. One more question. Why are you helping us?”
“Because you let me sleep in your house.” That wasn’t the reason. Moon didn’t know what the reason was. He was just tired of looking at dead groundings.
The first novella, “The Dead City,” follows Moon back before the start of The Cloud Roads, when he was still a lonely outcast wandering the Three Worlds. While I missed the presence of the rest of our usual supporting cast, I think it did expand upon the feelings of loneliness and abandonment that you see in Moon during the full length books. He just so desperately wants someplace to belong.
“The Dark Earth Below,” the other novella of the series, was the content I am here for. It takes place between book three, The Siren Depths, and book four, The Edge of Worlds
“Mimesis” is a short story from Jade’s POV when a young male warrior goes missing on a hunting trip. Everyone was sort of assuming he’d just flown off to sulk somewhere, but has something gone seriously wrong?
In “Trading Lessons” a non-raksuran trader comes to Indigo Cloud and Moon thinks he’s taking advantage of the other raksura, who will happily trade some very valuable gems for a handful of herbs and consider it a good bargain. It’s just one more thing I love about them.
“The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment” takes place in the same world but doesn’t contain any raksura or familiar characters. It’s a completely new cast. The crew of the Escarpment takes a job which involves rescuing a city’s ship from the clutches of some carnivorous pirates. I enjoyed this one more than I was anticipating
If you’re obsessed with the raksura as I am, you should enjoy this collection. Now I just need to track down volume one…
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.