The Cloud Roads - Book 1 of the Books of the Raksura

The mass market paperback edition of The Cloud Roads, the first book in the Books of the Raksura series, will be out next Tuesday, November 19. It's already available in trade paper, ebook, and audiobook, narrated by Christopher Kipiniak. Cover art is by Matthew Stewart, who won the Chesley Award for Best Illustration - Paperback for 2012 for it.

The second book, The Serpent Sea and the third, The Siren Depths will be released in mass market paperback in January 2020.

Reviews for the series:

"The venerated pulp spirit in science fiction and fantasy has dwindled since the golden age of the 1920s to '50s. Yet an atavistic craving for adventure remains, and it is this need that Wells's books in general and the Raksura books in particular satisfy. The stories are straightforward adventure, but what makes Wells's "new pulp" feel fresh is its refusal to take the easier storytelling routes of its forebears. Rather than thinly veil an existing human society as alien others, for example, Wells - a master world builder - creates a multicultural world of humanized monsters...The result is breathtakingly surprising and fun. So for readers who missed earlier entry points to this delightful series, now is the time to get on board."
- New York Times

It's quite unlike anything else in the genre - with a core cast of non-human characters, it creates an entirely fresh, matriarchal fantasy world with its own biology, ecology, technology, and magic.
- Barnes & Noble's New Book Round-up

Martha Wells' books always make me remember why I love to read. In The Cloud Roads, she invents yet another rich and astonishingly detailed setting, where many races and cultures uneasily co-exist in a world constantly threatened by soulless predators. But the vivid world-building and nonstop action really serve as a backdrop for the heart of the novel--the universal human themes of loneliness, loss, and the powerful drive to find somewhere to belong.
- Sharon Shinn

I loved The Cloud Roads so much that I begged Ms. Wells and Nightshade Books to let me tell you--Yes! You! You, the one who is looking for a new book to start!--to read this marvelous science fantasy series. With excellent, inventive world building and wonderful characters I adored spending time with, it is completely fabulous.
- Kate Elliott

The Cloud Roads has wildly original worldbuilding, diverse and engaging characters, and a thrilling adventure plot. It's that rarest of fantasies: fresh and surprising, with a story that doesn't go where ten thousand others have gone before. I can't wait for my next chance to visit the Three Worlds!
- N.K. Jemisin


Find it at an independent bookstore through Indiebound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781949102185

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-cloud-roads-martha-wells/1130887140?ean=9781949102185#/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Roads-One-Books-Raksura/dp/1949102181/

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