Future Treasures: Fog Season, Book II of Tales of Port Saint Frey by Patrice Sarath
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I was proud to publish Patrice Sarath’s short story “A Prayer for Captain LaHire” in Black Gate 4, and see it reprinted in Year’s Best Fantasy 3 (2003). She turned to novels with the popular Gordath Wood trilogy (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl). But her real breakthrough came last year with her first release from Angry Robot, The Sisters Mederos, the tale of a once-great family fallen on hard times, and the two sisters — one a masked bandit, and another with secret supernatural powers — who reverse their family’s downfall. Louisa Morgan (A Secret History of Witches) called it:
A colorful Dickensian fantasy that leads the reader on an unpredictable path of murder, intrigue, and mystery… It’s a tale of magic lost and recovered, fortunes made and squandered, and broken lives healed, all of it engineered by Yvienne and Tesara, two resourceful and delightful protagonists, in the company of some charming and often dangerous sidekicks.
Publishers Weekly gave it a rousing review saying,
The young women, newly returned from boarding school to a fantasy version of a preindustrial European port city, are determined to restore their family’s fortune and revenge themselves on the corrupt Merchant’s Guild, whose machinations lie behind House Mederos’s downfall. Yvienne, “the smartest girl in Port Saint Frey,” provokes through newspaper editorials, takes a governess job as an entrée into the houses of the powerful, and eventually discovers the excitement of committing armed robbery. Tesara, who conceals supernatural powers that she blames for the shipwreck that ruined her family, ingratiates herself with the upper classes at gambling tables… [The] heroines are entertaining company, and the dynamic between the two sisters — occasionally contentious, often secretive, always loving — is the most enjoyable part of this effervescent tale.
I’m delighted to see the sequel, Fog Season, scheduled to arrive February 5, less than a year after the release of the first, and I hope it’s the sign of more to come. Here’s the description.
A web of secrets and hidden identities ensnare two sisters and their family, in this delightful historical fantasy sequel to The Sisters Mederos
After the shocking events of last summer, the high society of Port Saint Frey has plenty to gossip about. Who was the Gentleman Bandit? Why hasn’t he been captured? And what really happened that night when the Guildmaster disappeared? When the Guild hires Abel Fresnel, a detective with special powers of his own, to find the answers, Tesara and Yvienne Mederos have to avoid his probing questions and keep mum about their role in the events of that dark night. Everything’s more or less under control until a dead man turns up in the dumbwaiter…
Our previous coverage of Patrice’s books includes:
The Sisters Mederos
The Crow God’s Girl (Gordath Wood, Book III)
Going Digital with The Crow God’s Girl by Patrice Sarath
Fog Season, Book II of Tales of Port Saint Frey, will be published by Angry Robot on February 5, 2019. It is 352 pages, priced at $12.99 in trade paperback and $9.99 in digital formats. The cover is by
See all our recent coverage of the latest releases from Black Gate writers here.
These are exactly the kind of covers I was talking about in the David Keck post. These could be great books. But they’re already starting out behind when it comes to getting me to buy them because of the covers.
I don’t know. Usually I’m right there with you, with the dislike of photorealistic covers.
But not this time. I find these covers very moody and atmospheric, and the character portrayals are both alluring and enigmatic. These covers draw me in — especially FOG SEASON, which has a wonderfully evocative port setting in the background.
Maybe I’m getting used to them. But I like these quite a bit.
I agree with Glenn. These covers look like an advertisement for some new USA Network drama.
However, I’m sure that these covers have to be working for some people, otherwise publishers wouldn’t keep using them. Glenn and I are clearly not who is being marketed to.
Let me be clear though: I don’t think these are bad covers–just not my thing.
I feel the same way. Its obviously working or they would stop doing it.
Look at the two covers for Desert of Souls. I asked Howard Andrew Jones if they had seen a sales jump with the new cover that looks more like these and he said they did see a jump.