Set in a distinctive world with a charismatic protagonist, “the political critique is sharp and the mystery is gripping” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review).
LIBERTY’S DAUGHTER
by Naomi Kritzer
Fairwood Press, November 2023
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)
Beck Garrison lives on a seastead—an archipelago of constructed platforms and old cruise ships, assembled by libertarian separatists a generation ago. She’s grown up comfortable and sheltered, but starts doing odd jobs for pocket money. To her surprise, she finds that she’s the only detective that a debt slave can afford to hire to track down the woman’s missing sister. When she tackles this investigation, she learns things about life on the other side of the waterline—not to mention about herself and her father—that she did not expect. And that some people will stop at nothing to keep her from talking about . . .
“Admirers of Chris McKinney’s Water City trilogy will be riveted.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Kritzer’s got a sharp knife and she slips it in so smoothly that you barely notice that you’re bleeding. The best sf uses the future to make a point about the present, and Kritzer’s got today’s enshittified, profit-worshipping, sociopathic present’s number.” —Cory Doctorow, author of the Little Brother series and The Lost Cause
“This book offers a different kind of dystopia and a different kind of rebellion against it: a libertarian seastead that has managed to survive forty years while walking smack into all the expected bears, and a kid fighting those bears with all the strength of freedom and agency that the place has accidentally given her.” —Ruthanna Emrys, author of A Half-Built Garden
“LIBERTY’S DAUGHTER is a fast-paced, forthright, funny voyage through libertarian seasteads and teenage heroism.” —Marissa Lingen, Novel Gazing Redux
Naomi Kritzer has won the Hugo Award and the Locus Award and been a finalist for the Nebula (as well as finalist for the Hugo) for her short stories. Her young adult novel Catfishing on CatNet won the 2020 Lodestar Award and its sequel Chaos on CatNet was a finalist in 2022. Several of her stories and books have been optioned for film. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her family and a few cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice.
For twenty years, Sciona has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry at the University of Magics and Industry. When Sciona finally achieves her ambition and becomes a Highmage, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues are determined to make her feel unwelcome, and instead of a qualified lab assistant they give her a janitor. What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was not always a janitor. Ten years ago he was a nomadic hunter who lost his family on their perilous journey from the wild plains to the city. But now he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the privileged in power. At first, mage and outsider have a fractious relationship. But working together they uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first.
Book #1: CITY OF GODS AND MONSTERS
Book #2: CITY OF SOULS AND SINNERS
Book #3: CITY OF LIES AND LEGENDS
Amelia Sand is a student at Ainsworth Academy, where nonhumans are taught to be “civilized.” But for the rulers of Umbra—humans who came through a world-gate from Earth and now sit upon the thrones—that’s not enough. When Amelia discovers their plans to use magic to force her and her fellow monsters into blind obedience, she sets out to stop them.