Aether and Ego

It is autumn 1845, and Elizabeth Bennet is a part of the second generation embarking on a centuries-long flight to Alpha Centauri, working in the signal room and studying engineering aboard a massive centrifugal ship. When she is thrown into the orbit of the conventional Mr. Darcy, Elizabeth finds him haughty and intolerable.

But then her younger sister elopes. For all of their progress in the new society of the ship, a woman can still be ruined by an imprudent attachment. Can Elizabeth and Darcy save Lydia’s reputation, learn to like each other, and avoid being convicted of murder?

Aether and Ego is a steampunk retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with the addition of space travel, dogs, and accidental death.

AuthorJoanne Merriam

PublisherInanna Publications and Education

Hemo Sapiens

Hemo Sapiens, is a sleek crime/horror literary thriller that investigates women who need men’s blood and is Emily A Weedon’s second novel.

“Unspooling with blood-soaked irreverence, Hemo Sapiens is a fun and welcome addition to the vampire genre.” Quill & Quire
“Hemo Sapiens reframes vampirism through pregnancy, motherhood and the blood-deep ties between sex, death and birth.” Rue Morgue
“The author’s influences  — from Whitley Streiber’s “The Hunger” to the medical paranoia of David Cronenberg — are obvious, but do not detract from her ability to craft a vivid tale that is all her own.” Stephen Beattie, The Toronto Star

AuthorEmily Weedon

PublisherDundurn Press

Honeysuckle

In a lush, quiet field, a girl made of flowers opens her eyes and meets Rory, a boy who is desperate to have a friend. Magic and horror collide in this stunning debut that explores power, consent, loneliness, and what makes a person.

She was made for him.

Daye was woven together from flowers and magic to be the perfect playmate for Rory, a young boy left isolated in a remote country estate. In the early years, their friendship, almost eerily in sync, is everything the two lonely children could dream of.

But the threat of Daye literally—and gruesomely—falling apart whenever the seasons change drives Rory to learn ever deeper and stranger magic, until the line between what he can do and what he should do begins to blur. And the further Rory experiments, the higher the stakes climb—until the cost of a mistake might be either Daye’s freedom or her life.

Daye can’t help but love Rory, even as he keeps disappearing: into his studies, into the city—a place she, a girl whose heart is built of petals and berries, could never enter without falling apart. But as her choices narrow with each new experiment, Daye begins to wonder at what point the price for loving Rory might be too high.

Loosely based on Welsh mythology, Honeysuckle is a heartbreaking fable of longing and need—for love, for control, and for freedom—and a psychological fairy tale perfect for readers of Eowyn Ivey and V. E. Schwab. Part Wuthering Heights, part Frankenstein, it is its own fantastically twisted tale from a singular new talent in Bar Fridman-Tell.

AuthorBar Fridman-Tell

PublisherSimon & Schuster Canada

Mercutio

From Sunday Times bestselling author of The Embroidered Book and The Valkyrie comes an opulent 13th century epic retelling of the life of Mercutio before he ever encountered Romeo and Juliet.

On the battlefield, as warring factions deal out death, young Mercutio chances upon the charismatic poet Dante Alighieri. In their desperate stand against the enemy, they inadvertently open a crack between our world and Faerie, literally changing the stars over Mercutio’s head, and creating a mysterious presence who will follow Mercutio for all the days of his life.

With new stars come new destinies for young men who will travel to the ends of the Earth to honour the bonds of love and friendship.

As outcasts and exiles, Mercutio and Dante find family in a band of fighters called the Montecchi, near Verona. With his friends at his side, Mercutio will battle to change his stars, and to free the changeling upon whose fate hangs the future of the human world.

AuthorKate Heartfield

PublisherHarperCollins Canada