A con-man, a female cop on the moon with secret revolutionary leanings, and a genetically modified, AI-uplifted talking cat who eventually becomes a starship captain are at the heart of The Tangled Stars, the twelfth novel by Saskatchewan author Edward Willett for New York’s DAW Books, one of the world’s premiere publishers of science fiction and fantasy.
More than a century ago, the network of MASTTs, the space-time tunnels that made interstellar travel possible, violently collapsed, the backlash destroying a lot of the solar system’s space-based infrastructure. Cooper “Coop” Douglas, a thief and conman, is in serious debt to outer-system crime-lord Eric Galioto. While trying to salvage a valuable chunk of a space station destroyed by the backlash, Coop makes a startling discovery: MASTT Primus, the tunnel that used to lead to New Earth, is open again. That raises an intriguing possibility: Coop could flee the solar system and his debt to Galioto and make a new life—and possibly fortune—around another star.
Accompanied by his first mate, the wisecracking, AI-uplifted, genetically modified cat Thibauld, Coop sets out to “liberate” the solar system’s only remaining functioning starship from an Earthside museum, enlisting the help of Laysa Grey, a former-lover-turned-cop on Luna. Along the way, he is pursued by Galioto and dogged by law enforcement and thugs.
And beyond MASTT Primus, the tangled stars await . . .
Edward Willett is the award-winning author of more than sixty books of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction for readers of all ages. He’s also host of the Aurora Award-winning podcast The Worldshapers, featuring conversations with science fiction and fantasy authors about the creative process, and owner and publisher of Shadowpaw Press, which publishes new work by established and emerging authors and new editions of notable, previously published work.
His previous DAW novels include Marseguro (winner of Canada’s top science fiction award, the Aurora Award, for Best Long-Form Work in English), and its sequel, Terra Insegura (an Aurora finalist); Magebane (written as Lee Arthur Chane); the Masks of Aygrima fantasy trilogy (written as E.C. Blake); the stand-alone science fiction novels Lost in Translation and The Cityborn, and the three-book Worldshapers series. Willett is also the author of The Shards of Excalibur modern-day YA fantasy series, originally published by Coteau Books, and Star Song, a finalist for the 2022 Aurora Award for Best Young Adult Novel, among several others. His YA fantasy Spirit Singer won a Saskatchewan Book Award and he’s been a finalist many times. He lives in Regina, Saskatchewan.
