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Published Jun 2021
256 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
New York Times bestseller and Hugo, British Fantasy, Romantic Times, and Eisner award-winning author of the graphic novel Monstress, Marjorie Liu leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her long-awaited debut collection of dark, lush, and spellbinding short fiction, you will find unexpected detours, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women.
Briar, bodyguard for a body-stealing sorceress, discovers her love for Rose, whose true soul emerges only once a week. An apprentice witch seeks her freedom through betrayal, the bones of the innocent, and a meticulously plotted spell. In a world powered by crystal skulls, a warrior returns to save China from invasion by her jealous ex. A princess runs away from an arranged marriage, finding family in a strange troupe of traveling actors at the border of the kingdom's deep, dark woods.
Concluding with a gorgeous full-length novella, Marjorie Liu's first short fiction collection is an unflinching sojourn into her thorny tales of love, revenge, and new beginnings.
"A collection of short stories exploring the emotional complexity, diverse physicality, and layered sexuality of resourceful women...The only drawback to these seven stories is that readers will want far more time in each world." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[S]pellbinding...Liu's mastery of so many different subgenres astounds, and her ear for language carries each story forward on gorgeously crafted sentences. This is a must-read." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Beautifully written, deeply engaging, and full of wonder and strong female characters." - Grimdark Magazine
"Marjorie Liu collects seven darkly fantastic stories in The Tangleroot Palace, showcasing immersive world building and emotionally evocative prose." - Shelf Awareness
"The Tangleroot Palace is charming and ruthless. Tales that feel new yet grounded in the infinitely ancient, a mythology for the coming age." - Angela Slatter, author of The Bitterwood Bible
"Rich and evocative tales with just the right amount of bite." - Kelley Armstrong, author of Bitten
This information about The Tangleroot Palace was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marjorie M. Liu is a bestselling novelist and comic book writer. She is the author of more than 19 novels, most notably the urban fantasy series Hunter Kiss and the paranormal romance series Dirk & Steele. She has twice received the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, for The Mortal Bone and Tiger Eye. Ms. Liu's graphic novel work at Marvel includes Black Widow, Han Solo, Dark Wolverine, and Astonishing X-Men. She is the co-creator of Monstress from Image Comics, which has won multiple Hugo, British Fantasy, and Harvey Awards. Ms. Liu was the first woman, and first woman of color, to win an Eisner Award in the Best Writer category. At BookExpo, Ms. Liu was a featured speaker alongside Rachel Maddow, Ta-Nehesi Coats, and Malcolm Gladwell. She has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, MTV, and been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Hollywood Reporter, Atlantic, and USA Today. She is a frequent lecturer and guest speaker, appearing on panels at San Diego Comic Con, the Tokyo Literary Festival, the New York Times Public Lecture series, Geeks Out; and the Asian American Writers Workshop. Ms. Liu was born in Philadelphia, grew up in Seattle, and has lived in numerous cities in the Midwest, as well as Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Prior to writing full-time, she was a lawyer. She currently lives in Boston and teaches comic-book writing at MIT.
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