Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Fire in the Heavens
    A Fire in the Heavens
    A Fire in the Heavens
    Ebook63 pages51 minutes

    A Fire in the Heavens

    By Mary Robinette Kowal

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    On a tidally locked world, Katin is aboard a ship fleeing from religious persecution in her homeland. Her people worship the seven-sisters, a group of dieties that resides in the night sky and are visible as a tight cluster of stars. This exploration ship has sailed farther West than anyone has sailed before. Some think that they will sail off the edge of the world, but she is confident that the ancient stories of a land far to the West are true. She dismisses the tales that accompany the stories of light in the night sky called “the moon” as exaggerated superstition.  

    Until they sail over the over the curve of the world and sees the moon for the first time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMary Robinette Kowal
    Release dateOct 10, 2017
    ISBN9780692538258
    A Fire in the Heavens
    Author

    Mary Robinette Kowal

    Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Glamourist Histories series of fantasy novels. She has received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, three Hugo awards, and the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel.  Her work has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. Stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, and several Year’s Best anthologies as well as in her collection Scenting the Dark and Other Stories from Subterranean. Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor, has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve. She also records fiction for authors such as Kage Baker, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi. Mary lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit maryrobinettekowal.com.

    Related to A Fire in the Heavens

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      For The Wolf

      Jun 16, 2021

      ⏵ RELEASED 17 JUNE 480 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ⏵ Author Hannah Whitten ⏵ Publisher Orbit Books Wolves run through fairy tales, flashing a tooth here, a tail there. But if you pick this up expecting to see familiar motifs popping up, you’ll

      1 min read

    • Article

      The City Of Dusk

      Mar 23, 2022

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 576 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Tara Sim Publisher Hodder & Stoughton City Of Dusk is deceptive; it starts off relatively fluffy and ends elbows-deep in blood. It’s told from the perspectives of a number of characters, t

      1 min read

    • Article

      Shards Of Earth

      May 19, 2021

      Shards Of Earth
      2 min read

    • Article

      'Provenance': A Cozy Mystery Set In Ann Leckie's 'Ancillary' Universe

      Sep 27, 2017

      In this standalone novel, Ann Leckie returns to the world of her award-winning Ancillary trilogy with a different mission — a cozy mystery about the theft of some politically sensitive antiques.

      2 min read

    • Article

      'The Raven Tower' Rises From Shakespearean Foundations

      Feb 26, 2019

      Ann Leckie's new fantasy novel is packed with family intrigue, throne-room maneuvering and nods to Hamlet in its story of a son who comes home to find his father missing and his uncle in power.

      2 min read

    • Article

      100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time

      Oct 23, 2020

      100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time
      27 min read

    • Article

      A Load Of Old Trope

      Sep 3, 2020

      A Load Of Old Trope
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Witch Finders

      Jul 16, 2020

      Beth pulled her cloak tightly around her. It was the very last day of October and the air was damp and chill. Dead autumn leaves lay in deep piles in the woods and smoke curled into the night air from her cottage. Not far to go now. She bent her head

      4 min read

    • Article

      Joe Abercrombie

      Sep 11, 2019

      It’s one of the hallmarks of a certain kind of fantasy that it appears to take place in an unchanging world of foundling princes, wizards and dark lords. Joe Abercrombie, for one, isn’t too keen on this idea. “I was always a bit frustrated by the san

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Vanished Birds

      Aug 12, 2020

      Starship captain Nia Imani returns home to one of the great trade Stations with an unexpected passenger who will change the course of history… Umbai’s Ark departed from the Colombian Elevator two years later, in early June. It was the third to leave

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Short Slice Of Fantasy

      Apr 7, 2022

      A Short Slice Of Fantasy
      6 min read

    • Article

      Daughter Of The Moon Goddess

      Jan 26, 2022

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 496 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Sue Lynn Tan Publisher HarperVoyager On paper, this story has so many familiar elements (a plucky runaway protagonist trying to help an imprisoned parent, cruel monarchs, a handsome prince

      1 min read

    • Article

      Ursula K. Le Guin, Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer, Has Died at 88

      Jan 24, 2018

      Acclaimed science-fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin died Monday in her hometown of Portland, Ore., her agent confirmed. Le Guin was 88. Although best known for her science fiction - particularly the Earthsea series - Le Guin was a creative, curious wr

      2 min read

    • Article

      Wild And Wicked Things

      Mar 23, 2022

      RELEASED 31 MARCH 466 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Francesca May Publisher Orbit Books Hopes for a 21st century revival of the roaring twenties seem doomed to be dashed. But if you’re still hopefully waiting, try heading back to the origin

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Fire in the Heavens

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Fire in the Heavens - Mary Robinette Kowal

      A FIRE IN THE HEAVENS

      MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL

      For a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this novella, including brainstorming and workshopping session transcripts, the first draft, and line-by-line edits, please see Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology.

      ohplogoIllustration by Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein

      A FIRE IN THE HEAVENS

      MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL

      A mutiny would not begin with a knock. At the simple rap upon her cabin door, Katin sent a prayer to the Five Sisters to grant her calm. Closing the Principium, she tucked the small book of scripture into the sash at her waist.

      Enter. She swung her legs over the side of her hammock and set her bare feet on the smooth wood floor of her cabin. She had removed her leg wraps to sleep, letting the loose fabric of her leggings puddle on the bridges of her feet.

      In the deep night, the light of the sailor’s glowdisc cast swaying shadows in the tiny space. Lesid ducked his head into the cabin. Pardon, but the captain says we are in sight of land.

      Praise the Sisters. Months at sea, and even she had begun to think there was no other shore. She slipped the chain of her own glowdisc over her neck, with the cover flipped back to expose the phosphorescent surface. Ashore, a disc would fade to darkness as its dust settled during the course of a night, but the constant motion of the ship agitated the powder trapped within and kept discs always glowing at least dimly. She shook hers to brighten it further. With its light, she took a moment to bind her scarf of office around her neck before following Lesid above decks. The heavy beaded ends swung about her waist as she walked.

      Katin looked up for the cluster of stars that the Five Sisters inhabited in the heavens and murmured praise to them for guiding the search this far.

      The captain glanced over his shoulder as she approached. Stylian’s tall form swayed easily with the rocking of the ship. Well. You were right.

      His words made her feel more alone among the Markuth sailors than ever. She had no one of her faith aboard the ship to share her joy.

      Stylian had mocked her goals, but how was that different from the mockery that the followers of the Five Sisters faced daily? He had taken the church’s commission. She was only grateful that he had been willing to sail on a course other captains had considered foolhardy, following the trail of ancient stories about a land far to the west. And the storm chased the Five Sisters from Selen, across the dark sea.

      A glow lay on the horizon, marking the division of the ocean from the sky. In the darkness, she could just make out the rounded shadow of land. Katin closed her glowdisc so it would not interfere with her night vision. She frowned, slowly understanding what the light meant. She must be seeing a mountain with a city at its base. I don’t know why I expected the land to be uninhabited.

      Captain Stylian grunted in agreement. I’m of two minds about this. One part of me is relieved, because this means we can definitely restock. The other is apprehensive, because big cities have more regulations than others.

      Why are you expecting a big city?

      He nodded toward the horizon as if his statement were obvious. The only time we see that much light before we arrive is when we cross the Narrow Sea to Arland and sail into the harbor at Porvath.

      Katin looked back to the light and had to struggle to catch her breath. So many people . . . so many people who shared a heritage with her.

      Her people had suffered persecution for their beliefs in every country. In Marth alone, the followers of the Sisters had been barred from holding office unless they renounced their beliefs. Even then, the visible differences of those who were ethnically of the Sisterhood still marked them. Hair twisted into pincurls at night to mask its coarse straight lines. Dye to cover the early gray—in some of the older families, hair grayed at puberty. Nut stains to darken the skin from the ruddy hue of a Sister, and still people could tell.

      It was hard to comprehend that they had found Selen, the homeland.

      She raised her gaze to the sky. She was not alone as long as the Sisters watched overhead. The Five Sisters have prepared a way for us.

      "To be honest, I wasn’t sure how long I would be

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1