Fun, froofy and glorious: a coming-of-age story in a new trilogy from World Fantasy Award-winning author C.S.E. Cooney.
C. S. E. Cooney is the author of World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans: Stories. Her short novel The Twice-Drowned Saint is included in Mythic Delirium’s anthology The Sinister Quartet. Other work includes Tor.com novella Desdemona and the Deep, and a poetry collection: How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, which features her Rhysling Award-winning “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” Her short fiction and poetry can be found in Jonathan Strahan’s anthology Dragons, Ellen Datlow’s Mad Hatters and March Hares: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and elsewhere.
"Newcomers will still find Cooney’s glittering narrative skills and
vivid worldbuilding addictive, her diverse characters intriguing,
and her message of justice and freedom stirring. This remarkable
and richly detailed adventure is worth savoring." -- Publishers
Weekly
*Publishers Weekly*
“C. S. E. Cooney is one of the most moving, daring, and plainly
beautiful voices to come out of recent fantasy. She’s a
powerhouse.” -- Catherynne M. Valente, NYT-bestselling author of
the Fairyland novels
*Catherynne M. Valente*
“A delicious stew of science fiction, horror, and fantasy, marked
by unforgettable characters who plumb the depths of pathos and
triumph.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
*Publishers Weekly*
“Memorable prose propelled by extraordinary ideas… Twisted genius!”
— Locus
*Locus Magazine*
"These stories are a pure joy.” —Delia Sherman, author of Young
Woman in a Garden: Stories
*Delia Sherman*
"Stories of surpassing delicacy and wit, told by a lady of rare
talent.” -- Ysabeau S. Wilce, Andre Norton Award-winning author of
Flora's Dare
*Ysabeau S. Wilce*
"Highly original, mythic in scope, lyrically told, just plain fun."
-- Nicole Kornher-Stace, author of Archivist Wasp
*Nicole Kornher-Stace*
"C.S.E. Cooney's Bone Swans is like visiting a literary Ys. Coaxed
by her deft hand, lands and people long lost to memory resurface,
breaking through the hearts of readers with the force of a gentle
tsunami. Once that wave has broken over you, you are never the
same." -- Tiffany Trent, author of The Unnaturalists
*Tiffany Trent*
"Like one of her characters, C. S. E. Cooney is a master piper,
playing songs within songs. Her stories are wild, theatrical, full
of music and murder and magic.” -- James Enge, author of Blood of
Ambrose
*James Enge*
"It's a treasure chest of a collection, and it's full of gems.” --
Sharon Shinn, author of the Elemental Blessings series
*Sharon Shinn*
“Desdemona and the Deep is an eloquent, elegant novella about
power, art, consequence and change. It’s also pleasantly queer and
drunk on language, which appealed to me deeply. I recommend it.” –
Liz Bourke, Locus
*Locus Magazine*
“Edgy, romantic, earthy, and colorful.“ -- Amy Goldschlager,
Locus
*Locus Magazine*
"There is always the music of the writing, and the comic
coloration, and the engaging and just awakening Desdemona to keep
us entranced." -- Rich Horton, Locus
*Rich Horton*
"A rococo romp through strange and eerily familiar worlds."-- Erin
Downey Howerton, Booklist
*Booklist*
"The writing is dense with poetry, festooned to the eyelids --
occasionally to the gills and other body-parts -- with fantastic
imagery that comes together in the end in unexpected and entirely
satisfying ways." -- Patricia A. McKillip
*Patricia A. McKillip*
"Is it extravagant? Yes. Does it flirt with camp? Oh, yes. Is it so
beautiful, smart and joyful that I finished it gasping? Yes, yes,
YES." -- Robert V.S. Redick, author of The Fire Sacraments Trilogy,
and The Chathrand Voyage Quartet
*Robert Redick*
"A story that is by turns sly, sensual, and surprisingly sweet,
Cooney spins an unexpected tale with an absolutely perfect ending."
-- Sharon Shinn, author of the Samaria series, and the Twelve
Houses series
*Sharon Shinn*
“CSE Cooney’s prose once again delivers on the promise of the wild
magic and music. Saint Death's Daughter will leave you feeling
she's actually summoned a new world, and you might just stumble
upon it around the next corner. Glorious.”—Angela Slatter,
award-winning author of All the Murmuring Bones
“C.S.E. Cooney has always been a consummate wordsmith, but with
Saint Death’s Daughter she proves she’s a master of long form
fantasy as well. Cooney sets her budding young necromancer adrift
in a dazzlingly dark, weird, engaging and strangely warm world
alive with memorable characters, hidden secrets and sinister
intrigues. Everything, from tiny elements of characterization to
overall pacing to information about the setting, is handled with a
deft skill others should strive to emulate. This is a masterful
work from a writer at the top of her game. I can hardly wait to see
what she conjures next!”—Howard Andrew Jones, author of the
Ring-Sworn Trilogy
“Sumptuous, bawdy and layered as a mille-feuille... this book is
impossible not to devour.”—Lisa L. Hannett, author of Songs for
Dark Seasons
"It feels like overhearing a convo between Terry Pratchett and
Susanna Clarke. A total must if you dig footnotes or fantasy." --
Patty Templeton
“A giddy, glittering mosaic of incautious hope and over-generous
loves.”—Kathleen Jennings, author of Flyaway
“A mind-spinningly original bit of worldbuilding, and an emotional
arc so moving that I cried like a baby.”—Caitlyn Paxson
“Cooney’s prose, is a vast, note-perfect song. There’s no voice
like it.”—Robert V. S. Redick, author of Master Assassins
“Saint Death’s Daughter is a triumph of a book, gorgeous beyond
measure, fizzing with Cooney’s love for language, her inventiveness
in prose; it is also unbearably tender in how it addresses the idea
of death and legacy, the love we can gather into a life before we
curl to sleep in Death’s arms.”—Cassandra Khaw, author of The Salt
Grows Heavy
“Saint Death’s Daughter is filled with lavish world building,
lyrical prose, and characters to die for. C S.E. Cooney is a faerie
queen barely trying to pass in the mundane world. This book is as
luminous and flamboyant as she is.”—Tina Jens, award winning author
of The Blues Ain’t Nothin’: Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub
“Gorgeous, sexy, cruel and compassionate and funny. Such rich,
delicious world-building and frankly lovable characters (even the
baddies are compelling!). I relished every word.”—Liz Duffy Adams,
author of Tremontaine and Whitehall
“Saint Death’s Daughter is a tumultuous, swaggering, cackling
story, a gorgeous citrus orchard with bones for roots.
Miscellaneous Stones’ journey into adulthood and power, sorting
knowledge from wisdom and vengeance from justice, has an ocean’s
breadth and depth, its storms and sparkles and salt. Soaring with
love and absolutely fizzing with tenderness and joy—I have never
read anything so utterly alive.”—Amal El-Mohtar
“Just as magical as I knew it would be. The compassion Claire has
for her characters, the ways in which she draws the reader deep
into her world, are peerless and divine. I could go on about the
wonder of her prose, but I’d rather readers just dive straight in
and discover it for themselves.”—Tiffany Trent, author of The
Unnaturalists
“Saint Death’s Daughter is marvellous: it strikes an expert balance
between light and dark, serious and ludicrous, and always keeps a
wonderful, strong, queer energy about itself.”—Mike Brooks, author
of The God-King Chronicles
“I loved Saint Death’s Daughter to pieces. I loved the
world-building and the characters and the way that every time I
thought I knew what kind of book it was, it changed. There was an
ebullience to this book, in its world-building (with footnotes!)
and its prose and its characters, that I found both delightful and
compelling. I enjoyed it tremendously and look forward to the next
installment in the adventures of Miscellaneous Immiscible
Stones.”—Katherine Addison, author of The Goblin Emperor
“C.S.E. Cooney’s tale of a young necromancer allergic to violence
is infused with brilliantly intricate world-building, dark humour,
diverse characters and even a touch of whimsy. As Miscellaneous
‘Lanie’ Stones navigates her world of familial strife, both natural
and supernatural, and her own burgeoning powers, you can’t help but
learn to love death alongside her.”—Rhianna Pratchett
“Wildly inventive.”—Buzzfeed
*Buzzfeed*
“Cooney’s prose is beautiful and intricate and glowing.”—The
Colorado Sun
*The Colorado Sun*
“Every character arrives in a burst: fully-realized, always finding
their mark, dripping with detail and a fire in their
heart.”—Tor.com
“Saint Death’s Daughter exemplifies what fantasy can do in the best
of ways.”—Strange Horizons
“Grisly, dark, lovely, funny, heartfelt.”—Kirkus, starred
review
“I can usually predict story beats long before they happen but the
author managed to surprise me with the depth and complexity of the
characters, especially the antagonists.” -- The Southern Bookseller
Review
“Strange and magical adventures in a colorful world where most
people are gender fluid, the gods are strange and death is not an
ending.” -- Thornwell Books
“This is the weirdest book I have read in a long time – and yet
it’s weirdness is charming. Somewhat reminiscent of What We Do in
the Shadows or The Addams Family.” -- Booknest
“The novel complicates and recomplicates, always to its benefit.
There’s a puppy! And there is suspense, and twists, and a
satisfying resolution that gives no one all they want.” -- Black
Gate
“I don’t want to tell you much about this book. I want you to
experience it the way I did; a cake whose every layer is more
delicious than the last; a gemstone that always has another
glittering facet when you turn it over in your hands; a gift that
never stops giving. This is a book you should go into unprepared –
and unarmed.” -- Every Book a Doorway
“The broad aesthetic here is ‘whimsical gothic’: early chapters
have a real Ghormengast-y vibe, which Cooney balances with a story
that builds increasing nuance. Saint Death’s Daughter has gone
straight to the favourites list, and I can’t wait to see where the
adventures of Lanie take her.” -- Nerds of a Feather
“A beautiful, stunning work of literature, more art than words, and
something that I recommend everyone reads.” -- Just Geeking By
“Lanie’s journey from a young woman to adulthood is compelling; the
rise of her necromantic power and how she learns to wield it is
enthralling. The world the author has built around Lanie is
intricate and beautifully realised. It is a story that rewards the
time invested in it.” -- British Fantasy Society
“I’ve never met a book that is so completely sure of itself. Cooney
could have gone off on any tangent and I would have completely
believed it. I loved Saint Death’s Daughter for its complexities
and characters and chaos and I think this will remain one of my top
reads of the year.” -- FanFiAddict
“Hopeful, flamboyant, and full of unironic delight, even in its
objectively darkest moments.” —The Fantasy Hive
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