Angry Robot New Author & Book Announcement!

Angry Robot has done it again! They have signed on another amazing writer for their super robot army! Let me hand over the reins so they can tell you all about it.

We at Angry Robot are really excited to announce our new author Patrice Sarath!

Patrice is an author and editor living in Austin, Texas. Her novels include the fantasy series, Books of the Gordath (Gordath Wood, Red Gold Bridge, and The Crow God’s Girl) and the romance The Unexpected Miss Bennet. She has been published by Penguin in the US and Robert Hale Ltd. in the UK.

We will be publishing her newest novel, The Sisters Mederos. It’s an incredible YA tinged secondary world fantasy, focusing on a pair of sisters who are trying to restore their shamed family name and find the fiend who caused their downfall. But the sisters both have their own little secrets and are set to cause trouble across Port Saint-Frey. Here’s the official synopsis:

Two sisters fight with manners, magic, and mayhem to reclaim their family’s name, in this captivating historical fantasy adventure.

House Mederos was once the wealthiest merchant family in Port Saint Frey. Now the family is disgraced, impoverished, and humbled by the powerful Merchants Guild. Daughters Yvienne and Tesara Mederos are determined to uncover who was behind their family’s downfall and get revenge. But Tesara has a secret – could it have been her wild magic that caused the storm that destroyed the family’s merchant fleet? The sisters’ schemes quickly get out of hand – gambling is one thing, but robbing people is another.

Together the sisters must trust each another to keep their secrets and save their family.

If you think that sounds right up your ally you are in for a treat! Today we also have Patrice herself here to tell us a bit more about this exciting story!

– – –

“Give a girl a sister and she can move the world.”

The heart of The Sisters Mederos is the relationship between Yvienne and Tesara. At the start of the book they have been effectively orphaned, sent away to a girls’ school that’s like a combination of the Bad Boarding School (TM) in Jane Eyre, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, and A Little Princess (in short; mamas, don’t send your daughters to boarding school). They have only each other to depend on, and when they return to take on their enemies, they have to become more than sisters – they become allies.

I very specifically wanted the most important relationship in the book to be between the sisters. Yvienne and Tesara have a job to do – protect their parents, avenge their family, and restore their fortunes. They know they have each other’s backs but they have to learn to trust one another with their deepest, darkest secrets. Only then, when they join forces, can they succeed.

“If we’re in this together, we can’t have secrets. We have to work together.”
“And have you told all your secrets, Tesara?”
That hit home. Tesara tacked and came around on the offensive. “At least I’ve come clean about the gambling. You still haven’t told me where you went last night.”
Yvienne sighed. “You know what we have to do.” She held out her hand, littlest finger curved outward.
Surely she didn’t mean… “Pinky tell?”
“Pinky tell.”
They linked pinkies in the old childhood ritual. …
“One…two…three…” They chorused.

The sister bond is intense and complicated – I should know, since I have two sisters (and four brothers, so not lacking in the sibling department). It’s not always easy being a sister or having sisters, but it’s never boring. I wanted to get to the bottom of that relationship in all its complexity. Fantasy tends to focus on the singular hero or heroine, rarely giving our protagonists a family (and there’s a regrettable tendency to “fridge” family members as a motive for action). It was also important that each sister be strong and independent, with a personality unique to each character. I wanted to play with that development, because it’s fascinating how so many things impact a person’s identity, whether that is nature or nurture, birth order, and all of the stories families tell about each another, until breaking that first mold is often the hardest and most courageous action a person can take.

Yvienne has always been the “good” daughter – smart, diligent, a paragon of virtue, always obedient. Imagine her own surprise when she discovers she is not only smart, she is calculating and wicked. Tesara has grown up in her sister’s shadow. She’s the “bad” daughter – naughty, mischievous, a dreamer. It takes a great deal of courage to admit her own extraordinary powers and come into her own. Both sisters overturn the family stories that they’ve grown up with and end up acknowledging their own and each other’s talents and skills.

Here’s what Tesara thinks of Yvienne:

“Of the two of them, Yvienne had it the hardest, Tesara thought. She herself was well known as the family dunderhead, but Yvienne had been acknowledged the smartest girl in Port Saint Frey, even when they were little.”

And here’s what Yvienne thought of her little sister:

“She [Yvienne] was the practical one, the logical one. It was Tesara who had always been the strange one, by turns dreamy and inattentive, or combative and quick to lash out. It had been remarked upon by their parents until Yvienne had taken it for granted, the way one does as children. It was only in the last few years that it had come to her attention that their parents were not the best judge of their youngest daughter, or for that matter, of Yvienne herself.”

As the girls plunge themselves into their adventures, they also embark on an expedition of self-discovery. Things aren’t what they seem in Port Saint Frey, and while Tesara and Yvienne are leading double lives, they are discovering who they really are.

So there you have it: a timeless tale of magic, derring-do, gambling, mayhem – and sisters.

– – –

Thanks to Angry Robot for letting us share their good news and to Patrice for taking the time to give a us a peek at her newest heroines! The Sisters Mederos is due out April 3, 2018. To learn more about this story and Patrice’s other works you can check out her website or follow her on Twitter @PatriceSarath.

Print Friendly