Tor Publishing Group is thrilled to announce the acquisition of the novella Rose/House by Arkady Martine to executive editor Kelly Lonesome via DongWon Song of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. The book will also be published by Tor UK under Editorial Director Sophie Robinson. The novella was originally published in a special limited edition hardcover by Subterranean Press in 2023, and is a Hugo nominee for Best Novella.
All of Basit Deniau’s houses are haunted.
Detective Maritza Smith grew up in China Lake and knows the late architect’s most iconic creation, Rose House, is no exception. And a house embedded with an artificial intelligence is a common thing; but a house that is an artificial intelligence, infused in every load-bearing beam and fine marble tile? That is something else altogether. That is Rose House.
Deniau’s been dead a year, and the house is locked up tight, as commanded by his will. But one evening Detective Smith receives an alarming call from Rose House: there is a dead person inside.
It is not Basit Deniau, and it is not Dr. Selene Gisil, a former protégé and the sole person permitted to come into Rose House once a year. It is someone else. But Rose House refuses to communicate any further and hangs up.
No one can get inside Rose House except Dr. Gisil, who was abroad when the death was reported. Detective Smith must summon her back to the Mojave Desert and gain access to the house—and to the dead body—before it’s too late.
For someone may still be in there.
Rose/House will be published in hardcover by Tordotcom Publishing in early 2025.
From author Arkady Martine:
“I’m delighted to get to work with Tor Publishing Group and Kelly Lonesome to bring Rose/House to a wider audience. This book is my arthouse (…literally?) novella, a deserts-and-architecture horror-SF gothic experiment that grew from the seeds of my fascination with genius locii, artificial minds, and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. I can’t wait to share it—Rose/House itself, and all who it opens its doors to—with new readers.”
From Kelly Lonesome, executive editor:
“Arkady Martine’s incredible novella Rose/House is like a shimmering mirage in the desert: the closer you think you are to solving the mystery at its core, the more elusive the truth becomes. It’s a gripping must-read—she has turned the haunted house paradigm into a deliciously moody noir tech thriller. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to bring this story to more readers through Tordotcom, so fear not if you missed out on the limited edition from Subterranean Press! Rose/House is a locked-house murder mystery perfect for fans of science fiction with a beating heart at its core in the vein of Ann Leckie, Becky Chambers, Martha Wells, and Annalee Newitz.”
Arkady Martine is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr. AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and a city planner. Under both names, she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda, and the edges of the world. Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada, and Sweden, lives in New Mexico with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw. You can find her online on her website and on Twitter @ArkadyMartine.
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