The Disco Space Opera Series
Book One – You Sexy Thing
TwiceFar station is at the edge of the known universe, and that’s just how Niko Larson, former Admiral in the Grand Military of the Hive Mind, likes it.
Retired and finally free of the continual war of conquest, Niko and the remnants of her former unit are content to spend the rest of their days working at the restaurant they built together, The Last Chance.
But, some wars can’t ever be escaped, and unlike the Hive Mind, some enemies aren’t content to let old soldiers go. Niko and her crew are forced onto a sentient ship convinced that it is being stolen and must survive the machinations of a sadistic pirate king if they even hope to keep the dream of The Last Chance alive.
Amazon Editor’s Pick for Best Science Fiction and Fantasy/Dragon Award nominee/Locus Award nominee
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Book Two – Devil’s Gun
Life’s hard when you’re on the run from a vengeful pirate-king…
When Niko and her crew find that the intergalactic Gate they’re planning on escaping through is out of commission, they make the most of things, creating a pop-up restaurant to serve the dozens of other stranded ships.
But when an archaeologist shows up claiming to be able to fix the problem, Niko smells something suspicious cooking. Nonetheless, they allow Farren to take them to an ancient site where they may be able to find the weapon that could stop Tubal Last before he can take his revenge.
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Book three, Rumor Has It, appears this fall.
The Tabat Quartet
Beasts of Tabat
When countryboy Teo arrives in the coastal city of Tabat, he finds it a hostile place, particularly to a boy hiding an enormous secret. It’s also a city in turmoil, thanks to an ancient accord to change governments and the rising demands of Beasts, the Unicorns, Dryads, Minotaurs and other magical creature on whose labor and bodies Tabat depends. And worst of all, it’s a city dedicated to killing Shifters, the race whose blood Teo bears.
When his fate becomes woven with that of Tabat’s most famous gladiator, Bella Kanto, his existence becomes even more imperiled. Kanto’s magical battle determines the weather each year, and the wealthy merchants are tired of the long winters she’s brought. Can Teo and Bella save each other from the plots that are closing in on them from all sides?
“a fascinating world of magic, intrigue, and revolution.”—Publishers Weekly
Compton Crook Award finalist
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Fireworks. Riots. Rousing speeches. All markers of the vast societal upheavals taking place in the city of Tabat.
But personal upheavals reflect the chaos. Adelina Nettlepurse, noted historian and secret owner of Spinner Press, watches the politics and intrigue with interest, only to find herself drawn into its heart by a dangerous text and a wholly unsuitable love affair with a man well below her station.
The match offered by Merchant Mage Sebastiano Silvercloth would be much more acceptable, but Sebastiano is hampered by his own troubles at the College of Mages, where the dwindling of magical resources threatens Tabat itself. And worse, his father demands he marry as soon as possible.
When Adelina’s best friend, glamorous and charming gladiator Bella Kanto, is convicted of sorcery and exiled, the city of Tabat undergoes increasing turmoil as even the weather changes to reflect the confusion and loss of one of its most beloved heroes.
Meanwhile the Beasts of Tabat—magical creatures such as dryads, minotaurs, and centaurs—are experiencing a revolution of their own, questioning a social order that holds them at its lowest level. But who is helping the Beasts in their subversive uprising?
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Revolution. Riot. Enslaved magical creatures and an exiled, reluctant hero.
Bella Kanto finds herself aboard a hostile ship bound for a frontier town. When she encounters an old lover along the way, she has a chance to escape—but does she really want to take it?
Meanwhile apprentice Lucy and her friend Maz have been kidnapped from Tabat and taken to the Southern Isles in search of ancient magic. They fear what will happen when they get there, particularly when their kidnapper realizes he’s wrong about Lucy’s identity.
Return to a world where magical creatures fight for their right to be free in a system that makes use of their work and sometimes their very bodies in a city full of revolution and riot, ready for the return of its lost champion: the reluctant Bella Kanto.
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Book Four, Wings of Tabat, appears this winter.
Collections
Altered America
Steampunk fans will rejoice in the appearance of Altered America: Steampunk Stories, collecting Nebula and World Fantasy Award-nominated author Cat Rambo’s steampunk fantasies, including “Clockwork Fairies,” “Snakes on a A Train,” and “Her Windowed Eyes, Her Chambered Heart,” into a single book. Rambo’s wry humor, precise and evocative descriptions, and ability to create a world with a few deft touches are showcased in these ten tales.
“Rambo has a gift for immersing her reader into a vivid universe full of adventure, sensuality, wit, and poignant observation.” -Jody Lynn Nye
“Cat Rambo is endlessly innovative, ingenious, and just plain entertaining. Read her stories.” -Kevin J. Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of The Dark Between the Stars.
Highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed “The Wild, Wild West” and other steampunk stories. -Galaxy’s Edge Magazine
“A sparkling collection from one of the brightest talents in the field.” -Ursula Vernon
Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight
Eyes Like Sky And Coal And Moonlight brings together twenty stories from the extraordinary talent of fantasy author Cat Rambo. Here are tales from seaport city of Tabat, both before and after the sorcerous wars that destroyed the Old Continent. Here are alchemical explanations for failed blind dates. Here you’ll find a dryad, the last great elephant, and an uneasy blur of humanity. Cat Rambo doesn’t simply amaze and delight, she restores wonder to her readers with every page. You won’t simply believe that pigs can fly, you’ll question why you ever doubted the premise at all.
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Near + Far
Whether set in terrestrial oceans or on far-off space stations, Cat Rambo’s masterfully told stories explore themes of gender, despair, tragedy, and the triumph of both human and non-human alike. Cats talk, fur wraps itself around you, aliens overstay their welcome, and superheroes deal with everyday problems.
“It’s a clever conceit quite nicely executed, and absolutely impossible to carry over to e-book format. All of this clever design would be pointless if the stories were no good — fortunately, Cat Rambo is a great storyteller….If you want some really excellent stories, get the e-book. If you also want a physical object to warm the heart of any print-book collector, go for the paper version. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.” -Don Sakers, Asimov’s
Contains Nebula-nominated short story, “Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain”
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Neither Here Nor There
Cat Rambo’s newest collection of fantasy fiction contains both work original to the collection as well as work from Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and other leading fantasy fiction magazines. The work is presented in the same double-sided format as Rambo’s previous collection, Near + Far, of which Don Sakers of Asimov’s said, “If you want some really excellent stories, get the e-book. If you also want a physical object to warm the heart of any print-book collector, go for the paper version.”
Neither Here showcases alt-world fantasy, including stories set in Tabat, the world of her first novel Beasts of Tabat, while Nor There features stories set in our own world, including “The Wizards of West Seattle,” original to the collection.
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Novelettes and Novellas
And the Last Trump Shall Sound
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”—First Corinthians 15:52
From New York Times bestselling author, Harry Turtledove, critically-acclaimed novelist, James Morrow, and Nebula Award winner, Cat Rambo, comes a masterful anthology of three sensational novellas depicting a dark fictional future of the United States.
And the Last Trump Shall Sound is a prophetic warning about where we, as a nation, may be headed. Mike Pence is President of the United States after years of divisive, dogmatic control by Donald Trump. The country is in turmoil as the Republicans have strengthened their stronghold on Congress, increasing their dominance. And with the support of the Supreme Court, more conservative than ever, State governments become more marginalized by the authoritarian rule of the Federal government.
There are those who cannot abide by what they view as a betrayal of the nation’s founding principles. Once united communities break down and the unthinkable suddenly becomes the only possible solution: the end of the Union.
The authors’ depiction of a country that is both unfamiliar and yet unnervingly all too realistic, make you realize the frightening possible consequences of our increased polarization—a dire warning to all of us of where we may be headed unless we can learn to come together again.
“Three alarming, eclectic novellas imagine a ravaged America left behind by the totalitarian reign of Donald Trump in this chilling anthology, which picks up after Trump’s death in 2024 during ‘the second great COVID outbreak’ “—Publishers Weekly
Carpe Glitter
What do you do when someone else’s past forces itself on your own life? Sorting through the piles left behind by a grandmother who was both a stage magician and a hoarder, Persephone Aim finds a magical artifact from World War II that has shaped her family history. Faced with her mother’s desperate attempt to take the artifact for herself, Persephone must decide whether to hold onto the past—or use it to reshape her future.
Nebula Award Winner, 2019
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Nonfiction Work
Ad Astra: The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook
Co-edited with Fran Wilde
The 50th Anniversary SFWA Cookbook features dishes as creative and varied in taste as the authors who shared them. (Please do not eat actual authors.) From Alien Scones to At the Fruitcake of Madness, DOOM Cookies, Falling Cloud Cake, and Miss Murder’s Black Forest Trifle, these recipes will help you prepare the perfect celebratory spread, no matter who—or what—you’re feeding!
Includes recipes from Elizabeth Bear, Greg and Astrid Bear, David Brin, Maurice Broaddus, Stephen Brust, Pat Cadigan, C.J. Cherryh, Wesley Chu, Brenda W. Clough, A.C. Crispin, Jack Dann, Aliette de Bodard, Carole Nelson Douglas, Scott Edelman, Eugie Foster, Esther Friesner, Gregory Frost, William Gibson, Joe Haldeman, Barbara Hambly, Charlaine Harris, M.C.A. Hogarth, Nalo Hopkinson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Rosemary Jones, Kay Kenyon, Ellen Klages, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Yoon Ha Lee, Stina Leicht, Scott Lynch, Michael J. Martinez, Vonda N. McIntyre, Larry Niven, Sarah Pinsker, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Mike Resnick, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Spider Robinson, Mary Rosenblum, John Scalzi, Nisi Shawl, Charles Sheffield, Rosemary Claire Smith, Cat Sparks, Bud Sparhawk, Nancy Springer, James L. Sutter, Michael Swanwick, Carrie Vaughn, Ursula Vernon, Chuck Wendig, Toni Weisskopf, Fran Wilde, Sean Williams, Walter Jon WIlliams, Connie Willis, and Jane Yolen.
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Moving From Idea to Finished Draft
Fantasy and science fiction writer Cat Rambo shows multiple ways to take a story idea and flesh it out into a complete draft, looking at different ways in which ideas may manifest, such as plot, character, literary device, theme, scene, title, prompt, historical moment, collaboration, tribute to another writer, and more. Each section discusses a specific way an idea can appear, what that provides the writer, pitfalls to watch out for, and possible next steps, along with writing exercises designed to let the reader test each technique and idea and one of Rambo’s stories that started in that way.
Whether you read start to finish or skip around to various sections, this book is designed to fine-tune and amplify your ability to take any idea and make it into a story, taught by one of the finest storyteller teachers working in speculative fiction today.
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Edited Works
If This Goes On
A bold new anthology born of rage and sorrow and hope. 30 writers look at what today’s politics and policies will do to shape our world a generation from now.
Some of today’s most visionary writers of science fiction project us forward to the world of the future; a world shaped by nationalism, isolationism, and a growing divide between the haves and have nots. This anthology sits at the intersection of politics, speculative fiction, and American identity. The choices we make today; the policies of our governments and the values that we, as people, embrace are going to shape our world for decades to come. Or break it.
Edited by Cat Rambo, the current President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the stories of If This Goes On invite you to worlds very like this one? but just a little different. Including:
- “Green Glass: A Love Story” by Lily Yu, Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominee, and winner of the 2012 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, filters the future of now through a wholly relatable lens: relationships and marriage.
- Hugo-winning editor Scott Edelman’s “The Stranded Time Traveler Embraces the Inevitable” expertly employs an age-old science fiction convention to tell a deeply human tale of love, loss, and desperate hope.
- Streaming our everyday lives has become commonplace, but in “Making Happy” Zandra Renwick examines a very uncommon consequence of broadcasting your every experience.
- Former Minnesota Viking and noted equal rights advocate Chris Kluwe’s “The Machine” deals with one of the most important and hotly contested questions of the day: what truly defines citizenship and American identity?
- Nebula winner Sarah Pinsker’s “That Our Flag Was Still There” uses possibly the most powerful symbol in American iconography to create a frightening and darkly illuminating vision of freedom of speech.
- NAACP Image Award winner for Outstanding Literary Work Steven Barnes offers up the consequences of integrating technology and surveillance into our daily lives with his detective story “The Last Adventure of Jack Laff: The Dayveil Gambit”
And two dozen more of today’s best authors offer If This Goes On, the science fiction future of today.
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The Reinvented Detective
The evolution of crime, punishment, and justice in the future.
What happens when time and technology change the definition of crime and punishment?
Science fiction often focuses on future technology without considering the society housing it. Social norms may change as tech changes — or not. What will criminals, investigators, judges, and juries look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge the possibilities of new laws, new police methods, and the birth of sentient Artificial Intelligence, as well as all the ways they can clash or combine?
The Reinvented Detective presents stories that complicate law and order as well as the concept of criminals, detectives, punishment, and justice for all by showing how shifting technology, the rise of sentient AIs, and shifting social attitudes may affect what is not only acceptable, but expected, within both real world and digital communities—and everything in-between. These stories reinvent detective and true crime tropes, recasting them for the 21st century, and above all, experimenting, astonishing, and entertaining.
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The Reinvented Heart
What happens when emotions like love and friendship span vast distances — in space, in time, and in the heart?
Science fiction often focuses on future technology and science without considering the ways social structures will change as tech changes — or not. What will relationships look like in a complicated future of clones, uploaded intelligences, artificial brains, or body augmentation? What stories emerge when we acknowledge possibilities of new genders and ways of thinking about them?
The Reinvented Heart presents stories that complicate sex and gender by showing how shifting technology may affect social attitudes and practices, stories that include relationships with communities and social groups, stories that reinvent traditional romance tropes and recast them for the 21st century, and above all, stories that experiment, astonish, and entertain.
“Come here for the good stuff.”—SFWA Grand Master & New York Times Bestselling Author, Mercedes Lackey
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