“Thank you,” Cheris said after Oru had finished her speech. She said it in Mwen-dal.
“Like this,” Oru said, correcting her pronunciation with a smile.
Cheris repeated the words carefully.
“Come with me,” Oru said, first in Mwen-dal, then in the high language. “I imagine you’re hungry.”
“I am,” Cheris said, and followed Oru toward her new home.
Learning the language of her mother’s people wouldn’t bring back all the Mwennin who’d been slaughtered, and teaching mathematics to schoolchildren wouldn’t unknot the centuries of damage the high calendar had done to society. But that didn’t mean those things weren’t worth doing. Someone had to carry on with the small acts that kept civilization moving. And this time it was her turn.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THANK YOU TO the following people: my editor, Jonathan Oliver, and the wonderful folks at Solaris Books; my agent, Jennifer Jackson; and my agent’s assistant, Michael Curry.
I am grateful to my beta readers: Joseph Charles Betzwieser, Cyphomandra, Daedala, Seth Dickinson, David Gillon, Isis, Karanguni, Helen Keeble, Nancy Sauer, and Sonya Taaffe. Additional thanks to Sam Kabo Ashwell for providing an emergency Kindle when I was working on revisions after the flood; to Andrew Plotkin and Helen Keeble for their thoughts on the calendrical lock; to Peter Berman for help with the mathematics of the threshold winnower; and to Lila Garrott-Wejksnora for information on military funerals. All errors and narrative license taken are, of course, my own.
This one is for Daedala: pistolium tuum sum.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
YOON HA LEE is a writer and mathematician from Houston, Texas, whose work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed and The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction. He has published over forty short stories, and his critically acclaimed collection Conservation of Shadows was released in 2013. He lives in Louisiana with his family and an extremely lazy cat.
FOR FANS OF THE MARTIAN AND THE MARS TRILOGY
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Holland’s and the Champion’s lives intertwine, across the millennia, in a breathtaking story of vast ambition.
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The Guardian
“Haley weaves two tales into a tight, compelling narrative. Champion of Mars is a thriller, an unnatural mystery and a strange sort of love story. Highly entertaining and original, and well worth a look.”
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“A glittering novel of time travel that you’ll want to devour like a mille-feuille in one single bite. I loved it.”
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HIS MIND COULD SAVE THE WORLD... IF SHE CAN SAVE HIM FROM THE HUMAN RACE.
The Shield is Earth’s only defence. Rendering the planet invisible from space, it keeps humanity safe – and hidden. The exceptional minds of the Actives maintain the Shield; without them it cannot function.
When an Active called Tobe finds himself caught up in a probability loop, the Shield is compromised. Soon, Tobe’s malady spreads among the Actives and Earth becomes vulnerable for the first time in a generation.
Tobe’s assistant, Metoo, is only interested in his wellbeing. Earth security’s paramount concern is the preservation of the Shield. As Metoo strives to prevent Tobe’s masters from undermining his fragile equilibrium, humanity is left dangerously exposed...
‘Nik Abnett brings a most welcome new voice and vision to SF. Savant is a knockout!’
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