Release date: September 29, 2020
Subgenre: Fairy Tale Retelling, Asian fantasy
About Burning Roses:
From Hugo Award Winner S. L. Huang
"S. L. Huang is amazing."—Patrick Rothfuss
Burning Roses is a gorgeous fairy tale of love and family, of demons and lost gods, for fans of Zen Cho and JY Yang.
Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, is done with wolves and woods.
Hou Yi the Archer is tired, and knows she’s past her prime.
They would both rather just be retired, but that’s not what the world has ready for them.
When deadly sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, threatening everything they’ve both grown to love, the two must join forces. Now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, they begin a quest that’s a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.
"S. L. Huang is amazing."—Patrick Rothfuss
Burning Roses is a gorgeous fairy tale of love and family, of demons and lost gods, for fans of Zen Cho and JY Yang.
Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, is done with wolves and woods.
Hou Yi the Archer is tired, and knows she’s past her prime.
They would both rather just be retired, but that’s not what the world has ready for them.
When deadly sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, threatening everything they’ve both grown to love, the two must join forces. Now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, they begin a quest that’s a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.
Excerpt:
Rosa had grown old.
Or perhaps she had been old for a long time.
She leaned back in her chair, the wooden bones of the porch creaking beneath her. The setting sun flared against her eyes in a brilliant starburst, but Rosa did not close them, only squinted and let the tears wash through.
Perhaps she would be a more whole person if she cried. For what she had lost, and for what she had been.
“Flower, why so philosophical tonight?” Hou Yi came out onto the porch, her boots stomping loudly against the boards. Hou Yi did everything loudly, until she was on the hunt, when her footfalls became as quiet as the swish of one of her arrows. As quiet, and just as sure.
“What’s wrong with philosophy?” Rosa said.
“It’s a bad look for you.” Hou Yi thumped herself down in the other chair. Like Rosa, she was a large woman, solid and muscle-bound. “You live too much in your own head. Like a tortoise squeezed up into its shell. It makes your face constipated.”
The old wince ghosted through Rosa’s head at the comparison to an animal. She’d struggled so hard over the years to excise that prejudice, papering over her discomfiture with firm assertions, walling even the whisper of her own intolerance away from allies or family. She’d so proudly taught her own child right, all those years ago—grundwirgen might have animal forms, but they are the same as humans, just the same, no difference—but no matter how she tried to pry her soul free, the same visceral disgust still curled inside her like an ugly, wizened friend: You know what you are.
Her bigotry had destroyed everything good in her life, and still she couldn’t twist free of it.
Rosa turned her mind from the past and instead worked through Hou Yi’s final phrase to unearth the meaning. She wasn’t fully fluent in this tongue yet. And “constipated” wasn’t a term she used regularly, fortune favor her.
“You’re the one who’s constipated,” she said when she got it, mangling the pronunciation.
Weak comeback, but Hou Yi roared with laughter. Rosa wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of asking what she’d said by accident.
Or perhaps she had been old for a long time.
She leaned back in her chair, the wooden bones of the porch creaking beneath her. The setting sun flared against her eyes in a brilliant starburst, but Rosa did not close them, only squinted and let the tears wash through.
Perhaps she would be a more whole person if she cried. For what she had lost, and for what she had been.
“Flower, why so philosophical tonight?” Hou Yi came out onto the porch, her boots stomping loudly against the boards. Hou Yi did everything loudly, until she was on the hunt, when her footfalls became as quiet as the swish of one of her arrows. As quiet, and just as sure.
“What’s wrong with philosophy?” Rosa said.
“It’s a bad look for you.” Hou Yi thumped herself down in the other chair. Like Rosa, she was a large woman, solid and muscle-bound. “You live too much in your own head. Like a tortoise squeezed up into its shell. It makes your face constipated.”
The old wince ghosted through Rosa’s head at the comparison to an animal. She’d struggled so hard over the years to excise that prejudice, papering over her discomfiture with firm assertions, walling even the whisper of her own intolerance away from allies or family. She’d so proudly taught her own child right, all those years ago—grundwirgen might have animal forms, but they are the same as humans, just the same, no difference—but no matter how she tried to pry her soul free, the same visceral disgust still curled inside her like an ugly, wizened friend: You know what you are.
Her bigotry had destroyed everything good in her life, and still she couldn’t twist free of it.
Rosa turned her mind from the past and instead worked through Hou Yi’s final phrase to unearth the meaning. She wasn’t fully fluent in this tongue yet. And “constipated” wasn’t a term she used regularly, fortune favor her.
“You’re the one who’s constipated,” she said when she got it, mangling the pronunciation.
Weak comeback, but Hou Yi roared with laughter. Rosa wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction of asking what she’d said by accident.
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About S.L. Huang:
 |
| Photo by Chris Massa |
SL Huang is a Hugo-winning and Amazon-bestselling author who
justifies her MIT degree by using it to write eccentric mathematical
superhero fiction. She is the author of the Cas Russell series of scifi thrillers from Tor Books, starting with Zero Sum Game, as well as the upcoming fantasy Burning Roses. Her short fiction has sold to Analog, Strange Horizons, and more, including numerous best-of anthologies.
She is also a Hollywood stuntwoman and firearms expert, where she’s appeared on shows such as “Battlestar Galactica” and “Raising Hope.” Her proudest geek moment was getting to be killed by Nathan Fillion. The first professional female armorer in the industry, she’s worked with actors such as Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Momoa, and Danny Glover, and been hired as a weapons expert for reality shows such as “Top Shot” and “Auction Hunters.”
She is also a Hollywood stuntwoman and firearms expert, where she’s appeared on shows such as “Battlestar Galactica” and “Raising Hope.” Her proudest geek moment was getting to be killed by Nathan Fillion. The first professional female armorer in the industry, she’s worked with actors such as Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Momoa, and Danny Glover, and been hired as a weapons expert for reality shows such as “Top Shot” and “Auction Hunters.”
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