Publishers Weekly
01/29/2024
This haunting and insightful examination of the human capacity for violence and mercy from Nebula Award winner Mohamed (the Rising trilogy) chronicles a brutal intergalactic war. The Varkallagi Empire vows to fight to the last man in their decades-long power struggle with the Meddon. The Varkallagi have harnessed wasps to administer medication and have the tech to grow back amputated limbs, but their technology pales compared to the Meddon’s floating cities. Blind rage and sadism drive Varkallagi Corporal Qhudur as he gleefully tortures his own countrymen—his favorite victim being Alefret, the leader of a pacifist group and a mountain of a man whose deformed face frightens all who see him. With two million Varkallagi dead, military intelligence official Verl hatches a plan to send Qhudur and Alefret to infiltrate the Middon’s last floating city. The idea is for Alefret to make a connection with the enemy’s own pacifist faction, negotiate a surrender, and end the war. But is Alefret compromising his beliefs just by agreeing to the mission? Readers will need to give Mohamed’s challenging commentary on human nature a slow and careful reading to glean her insights into this chilling and demoralizing war. This is not for the faint of heart. Agent: Michael Curry, DMLA. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
I plunged into The Siege of Burning Grass knowing nothing except that Premee Mohamed wrote it. What more did I need? And yet, it astonished me. A colossal work of fiction and philosophy, Siege is something like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind meets The Things They Carried by way of The Brothers Karamazov. I loved Alefret, Mohamed’s monstrous man of peace, instantly and wholly. I feared for him, I suffered with him, I raged alongside him, all against a backdrop of gorgeous and lonely immensity. I wanted nothing for days but to be reading this book.” —C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Saint Death’s Daughter
“Dark, complex and powerful” —Claire North, author of Notes from the Burning Age
“Premee Mohamed is a fantastic new voice in speculative fiction, one of the most innovative, original, and exciting writers of recent years, full of fresh perspectives, scintillating narratives, and insightful comments on our world today.” —Ada Palmer, author of Too Like the Lightning
“Elegiac, elegant, Mohamed is merciless in how she holds the world to task for its cruelties and effortless in how she presents its horrors. This is a book with its heart on its sleeve, but also one that tells of how many have been left in the ground.” —Cassandra Khaw, USA Today best-selling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth
“Imagine The Good Soldier Švejk and George Smiley sitting down with a large bottle of absinthe and the scene being painted by Hieronymus Bosch. Or, more practically, you could read The Siege of Burning Grass and get a very similar effect. Why would you deny yourself an experience like that?” —Jonathan L. Howard, author of Johannes Cabal the Necromancer
“An engrossing, unflinching story. Premee's world of floating cities, medicinal wasps, and nations at war is both richly imagined and heartrending.” —Darcie Little Badger, author of Elatsoe
“This book has urgent things to say about the world at war, and now more than ever, you need to hear them.” —Vajra Chandrasekera, author of the Crawford, Nebula and Locus Award-winning The Saint of Bright Doors
“Haunting and insightful... This is not for the faint of heart.” —Publishers Weekly
“Siege and Mohamed both seem like ones to watch.” —Kajal Magazine
“Premee Mohamed has quickly become one of my auto-buy authors.” —Book Riot
“Superb.” —Locus
“A raging treatise, fascinating fantasy, and bittersweet character study; the fact that it’s delivered in beautiful prose is truly the cherry on top.” —Reactor
“A feat of worldbuilding, moral complexity, and taut, precisely paced storytelling. After this, I’m ready to hunt down everything else Mohamed has ever written.” —Esquire
“Gritty yet poetic.” —New Scientist
