Harbinger of the Storm.

Bodard, Aliette de. Harbinger of the Storm. New York: Angry Robot, 2011.

I'm a big fan of French-Vietnamese writer Aliette de Bodard's work; this is the sequel to her debut novel Servant of the Underworld, and just like Servant, I enjoyed it a lot.

The action resumes about a year or so after the events of the first book and centers around the succession to the crown of the Revered Speaker of the Mexica, the ultimate monarch of the Triple Alliance, better known as the Aztec Empire. Bodard is really good at marrying what we know from history and archaeology with magic and fantasy elements, and I continue to sympathize with the tribulations of her protagaonist Acatl, whose elevation to High Priest of the Lord of the Dead before the start of the first book continues to structure his life, and his problems.

( Remember, the gods are already dead. )

The first three chapters of MoHoD are up here, and if you'd like to check out some of Bodard's other fiction (I love her short stories), she has a Chinese postcolonial space opera story out this month in Clarkesworld, "Scattered Along the River of Heaven." It's painfully good.

Also, the book trailer for Harbinger is under the cut.
( Book trailer under here )

The Aurors deadline EXTENSION

swan_tower and I have decided to extend the deadline for fills for The Aurors Prompt Fest until 5pm PST on 22 January 2012--that's an extra two weeks (the original deadline was 8 January, at the same time). If you've claimed a prompt, we hope this extension gives you more breathing room, and if you haven't claimed a prompt, there's still plenty of time to do so! 

Of course, we also welcome stories submitted to the collection that don't explicitly fill any of the posted prompts. Happy writing!