QSFer Felicia Martínez has a new queer multiverse sci-fi book out (ace), a retelling of a Greek myth: These Bright and Perilous Designs.
A layered, lyrical, and heartbreaking novella.
In the near future, a grieving son uncovers the secret journal entries of his genius mother—and the life and love story she tells is layered across multiple universes.
In one universe, Phaedra falls in love—tragic and doomed—with Hippolytus. In another, the pair are brilliant and misunderstood software engineers whose creations threaten the world.
In ancient Greece, in the near future, in every world, some things remain true: Phaedra and Hippolytus’ love is doomed, and Phaedra’s scorned husband Theseus will do anything to seize their designs.
A novella written in vivid nonlinear prose perfect for fans of NK Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy and the myth-laden heartbreak of Hadestown, These Bright and Perilous Designs reimagines the Greek myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus with neurodiverse and asexual characters. It is a love story spanning lifetimes and a study of grief for those left behind.
CONTENT WARNING: This book depicts suicide. Unlike the original myth, this story does not allude to or contain sexual assault of any kind.
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Excerpt
1 / HERE AND NOW
BRIGHT JOURNAL ENTRY: ACAMAS_PRINCE
I don’t know if this story has happened before.
I don’t know if other universes touch our own, or stand astride us.
I can’t be sure of what’s only fiction, what’s merely real.
“There are other universes.”
Those are my mother’s words. Bleeding into these pages.
At least, this time. Sometimes others speak instead. From a different universe. It all shifts and changes, and here I am reading it all again, just as first read it, trying to catch each nuance. Trying to hold on.
Because she’s gone.
No, because she died.
“Twining and branching.”
You see? That sounds like my brother. He even used to say that here, in this universe, sometimes. Twining and branching.
Each system. Each new part of the software they were developing.
And then Mom would say it, too. Echoing each other.
Though never quite in sync. God, how I miss them.
The ache, it’s endless.
That I know for sure.
Because death? It makes a hole in the very fabric of things.
One that never closes. Though others might have other fates.
Though others might still live and breathe across the infinity of the multiverse. The rent remains.
That’s loss, I guess.
But maybe that’s love, too?
I pray to all the gods that ever were, or ever will be, that it is.
“I step down. I let the empty rope dangle.”
This is my mother’s story.
“I take a few heartbeats more.”
It’s my brother’s, too.
And it changes everything. Everything.
Which means it’s your story, too.
Let’s begin.
Author Bio
Felicia Martínez is the author of These Bright and Perilous Designs and The Other Lives of Altagracia Sanchez. She is also a ceramic artist, whose nature inspired sculptural work has been shown in galleries and cons. She has been guest poetry editor at The Deadlands, an SFPA Rhysling Award finalist, a Dream Foundry Contest for Emerging Writers finalist, and received her PhD in English from Stanford University. Originally from eastern New Mexico, she now shares a home under the redwood trees in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner and the sweet memory of a cat named Bat.
| Author Website | https://www.feliciamartinez.com |
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| Author Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/feliciafm.bsky.social |
| Author Other Social Media | https://www.instagram.com/feliciafm/ |