On June 5, 2023, Candlemark & Gleam will release Melissa Scott’s riveting fantasy The Master of Samar, an atmospheric work in which Erikson’s Malazan meets Kushner’s Riverside in a vividly-hued alt-universe Venice where power is based on dangerous covenants with demons.
The Master of Samar boasts a stunning cover by H. Won, and received high praise from Publishers Weekly, genre legends Ellen Kushner, Sherwood Smith and Jo Graham, acclaimed SFF critic and educator Cynthia Ward and Hugo-nominee reviewer Paul Weimer. The digital version is available for pre-order at Amazon, B&N and Kobo; and if all goes as it should, the paperback pre-order should also go live within a week. Here’s its synopsis to whet appetites:
Rejected by his aristocratic family, Gil Irichels has been content to make his living as a traveling curse-breaker, working with his lover, the feral mage Envar Cassi, and their bodyguard, swordswoman Arak min’Aroi. After a series of deaths leave him the sole heir to the family’s house and fortune, Irichels’s main concern is to do whatever he must to settle the estate and return to his previous life. But these is something very wrong in seaborne Bejanth, starting with the deaths of his kin and spreading into the complex web of politics and magic that holds the city together. As he struggles to discover the truth behind his family’s losses, he realizes that there is more at stake than the fall of one house. Someone is unraveling the web of curses on which the city depends, and Irichels is the only person who can stop them—if it’s not already too late.
Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program. She is the author of more than thirty original science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, as well as authorized tie-ins for Star Trek: DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Star Wars Rebels, and the anime series gen:LOCK. She won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, Point of Dreams (written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett), and Death By Silver with Amy Griswold. She also won Spectrum Awards for Shadow Man, Fairs’ Point and Death By Silver, as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her latest short story, “Sirens,” appeared in Retellings of the Inland Seas, and her text-based game for Choice of Games, A Player’s Heart, came out in 2020. Her most recent solo novel, Water Horse, was published in 2021, and Fallen, sequel to 2018’s Finders, will be out in late 2023.
Because GoodReads giveaways are no longer free and our coffers are of the usual size for indie micro-presses, we will be doing a direct giveaway for Master of Samar. You can enter it by leaving a comment to this post or by sending an email (with subject line “Master of Samar Giveaway”) to our website address. Please rest assured that your email will only be visible to the site admin.
The giveaway will run from 00:01 am, March 8, to midnight of June 4 EST, and random winners will be picked to receive copies of the novel. For up to 20 requests, there will be one award copy. For up to 50 requests, two copies; and beyond that, three copies. Because the pandemic and the USPS slowdown have caused significant shipping problems, the giveaway will only award digital copies (it will include the PDF that contains all the print flourishes).
We can hardly wait to share this remarkable work with the world. Until then, monitor your wards, maintain your otherworldly contracts, and visit the title at GR!
Note added on June 4: the giveaway is now closed. We’ll pick winners and contact them within a week.
Always excited to read new work from Melissa Scott!
I am VIBRATING with how excited I am for this book! Seriously can’t wait!
This sounds really neat!!
Can’t wait to rea d????
Sounds like a great read, on my list!
Melissa Scott was one of the first SFF writers I read and I continue to love her work!
Always want to read a new Melissa Scott book.
Can’t wait for this to drop! 🙂
Sounds very cool.
I can’t wait to read this. Melissa is one of my favorite authors.
Can’t wait for this one! I love Melissa Scott’s work
Always excited for more from Melissa Scott!
Very excited for this one!
I can’t wait! You had me at “by Melissa Scott”
Super excited to read this!
Im so excited!!! I love her writing ❤️❤️❤️
And what a beautiful cover, too!
Sounds like a great read! Cool cover too ????????
Excited for this book!!
I’m so excited for this! Love Melissa Scott’s writing and this cover ????
Looking forwards to it!
Very curious! Thank you for the opportunity. (Presents offerings to the random number generator demigods.)
Sounds amazing (you had me at Riverside!)
As others have said, I adore Melissa Scott’s writing, and can’t wait for this to come out!
That sounds wonderful!
Looking forward to reading this one!
Excited to read this!