It’s time! I’ve been sitting impatiently on the gorgeous cover art for The Final Chronicle of Yeneh while the publisher and I waited to be ready to share it—and it’s ready to preorder, so that time is now! Behold:
 

I love how the cover artist, Kim Herbst, brought to life one of the mythical yeheneh, the characters from the book-within-a-book that the main character Ada adored as a child. It looks hunted and afraid, but also beckons us to follow it into the shadows of a forest where some very prickly and (justifiably) wary plants are waiting. The glowing metal frame around the outside evokes the sci-fi reality of the story, where forcefields and other high-tech barriers are used to keep this alien planet’s nature “safely” in its place.

Ada Quintrall is heir to a dukedom and a colony planet, and she has to wrestle with her family’s legacy when she discovers they’re far from the do-gooders she thought. One of my early readers, author M. E. Garber, described it as “if Avatar and Downton Abbey met by way of a fairy tale,” which I think captures the spirit of it—except in contrast to Avatar’s white savior complex, it’s anticolonial. It was important to me to show Ada taking responsibility for her family’s mistakes, and doing what she can to put them right. It’s my take on terraforming stories: if you love the space colonization genre, but don’t feel great about all the native plants and creatures getting shoved aside to make room for humans, this one’s for you.

It’s also a complicated love letter to portal fantasies. For everyone who loved Narnia as a kid, only to later wonder why they needed to replace their tyrant queen with four British school kids—were there really no Narnians up for the task of governance?—this one’s for you, too.

Preorder The Final Chronicle of Yeneh now, in ebook and hardcover, wherever you buy books. If you can, I encourage you to get the beautiful hardcover direct from the publisher. If you do, you’ll get $5 off, plus some included goodies like a sticker, bookmark, and a thank-you postcard signed by me!

Here’s a little sneak peek from a conversation between Ada and Dr. Zamora, the xenobiologist who’s petitioning Ada’s grandfather to study the native ecosystems:

“It was my understanding that the native species are simply so many weeds.” 

 

Zamora coughed on his tea. “Weeds? Who told you that? It’s these Earth-born plants you’re farming, your flowers and wheat and damned grass, that are the weeds here. The fact that your invasive species haven’t already choked out the endemic species is impressive enough to merit study on its own.” 

 

“They’re vicious, though.” She echoed Morley’s claim without thought, as unconsciously as she rubbed the spot where the brooch had stabbed her. 

 

“I’d be vicious too, in their position.”

It’s going to be a wild ride for me the next few months, getting ready for the release of Tea & Treachery at the Infinite Pantry on April 21 (yes! A different book, a whole other series! Also available for preorder!) and for The Final Chronicle of Yeneh in July. I’ll be sharing more about both of them as those dates get closer. In next month’s newsletter, I’m planning to spill the tea, as it were, on Tea & Treachery. So stay tuned for that! Thank you all for being on this journey with me, and for your encouragement and excitement and preorders and reviews. It means the world to me.

I’ll leave you with this picture of Charlie, the cat with the world’s longest paws:

Until next time,

Jo Miles

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