Full brass fanfare for legendary SFF author and forerunner Melissa Scott, whose riveting mythic space opera Fallen lifts off today!
Fallen is the companion to acclaimed Finders, second in the projected tetralogy Firstborn, Lastborn. Set in a fully imagined universe with vividly delineated protagonists, the novel is a seamless fusion of adventure, myth, and science so advanced as to have become magic—a bold, original re-imagining of the tales of the Atreides, Daedalus, Prometheus, Pandora, and the Titans. Stories from this universe can be found in The Other Half of the Sky (“Finders”), To Shape the Dark. (“Firstborn, Lastborn”) and Retellings of the Inland Seas (“Sirens”). The stunning, evocative cover is by Eleni Tsami, her tenth magical creation for Candlemark, including Melissa’s Finders. The premise of Fallen:
Nic en Doroney was promised an education and an academic career in exchange for sharing the nanite burden she carries in her bloodstream. Instead, the Novilis family broke that bargain, and now Nic is captain of a small starship, competing with larger businesses by using illegal Ancestral technology to chart her way through the adjacent possible. But when Rejane Novilis re-enters her life, Nic is unable to resist the chance to work with her again, even if it means challenging the malevolent AI who have already destroyed human society once before.
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, The Master of Samar, came out in June of 2023.
Fallen received terrific reviews from many SFF venues and personalities. Excerpts:
Fallen: In Melissa Scott’s haunted and spectacular neo-mediaeval far future, one entitled young scholar // could prove far, far more dangerous than the hard-bitten tomb-raiders of the previous episode. Fun for space-opera fans of Finders and for new readers both! —Gwyneth Jones, author of the Aleutian trilogy, winner of the World Fantasy, Clarke, Dick, and Otherwise (Tiptree) awards
Melissa Scott is an absorbing and inventive writer whom you should read right away. —Pamela Sargent, author of the Seed trilogy and editor of Women of Wonder
Melissa Scott’s Fallen melds contemporary space opera sensibilities and settings with // a touch of the mythopoetic. // [It] returns us to the universe of Finders with a queer, immersive and page-turning character-focused timeless story. —Paul Weimer, SFF book reviewer and Hugo award finalist
Melissa Scott is known for rich worldbuilding, and Fallen does not disappoint, featuring stunning settings // for an exciting adventure. The characters are layered and intriguing. // [A] fascinating book perfect for fans of classic space opera. —Jo Graham, author of the acclaimed Numinous World historical fantasies and Calpurnian Wars space operas
Fallen is available on Amazon, B&N, Kobo—and of course on our website, where buying the lovingly prepared trade paperback also brings along the full digital bundle (PDF, Epub and Mobi). All C&G ebooks are DRM-free. Please note that if you buy more than one print copy from our website the shipping fees are high, because we’re forced to use UPS. For those who buy the print version, the ornaments are an Easter egg that I’ll discuss in a future post. If you figure it out, send word and we’ll celebrate together!
Come explore Fallen and Finders with us; travel through engineered spacetime tunnels, investigate dangerous ancestral technology, and face real ghosts of the past that threaten the future!
