Aliette de Bodard sold three books to Publishing Director Marc Gascoigne of Angry Robot via agent John Berlyne of Zeno Literary Agency. Gascoigne describes Servants of the Underworld, the first of the three, as “a wild mix of fantasy and crime novel, set in Aztec times. In this alternate world, though, the gods are real and stalk the temples, demanding sacrifices from the people. Amidst the bloodletting, a serial killer appears to be getting away with murder—but how do you find a murderer in a world where the streets themselves are awash with blood?”
The book is scheduled to be published in Spring 2010, and the two further novels, set in the same world, “will follow in due course.”
de Bodard is currently a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and was a winner of the Writers of the Future contest. Berlyne says “her deserved good fortune came about through a curious incident of her being in the wrong place at the right time. Stuck in Calgary an extra night due to a flight delay following last year’s World Fantasy Convention, she found herself passing time at with an equally delayed agent—me—and Angry Robot’s Marc Gascoigne.” Gascoigne continues, “It was a bit cheeky of us to cajole her into pitching there and then, but I’m very glad she did. We’re always looking for interesting new books to publish, but that day it was like the ancient gods themselves had all conspired to bring us to that spot! These are wonderful books, full of wild fantasy and cunning detection, and I’m so proud and pleased we’ll be publishing them.”