“With A Stranger In The Citadel, Tobias Buckell writes to the moment we live in, with a clarity and urgency that only fable can provide. Read it.”
—John Scalzi, author of The Kaiju Preservation Society
From powerful storyteller Tobias S. Buckell (Crystal Rain), a complex novel of humanity’s passion for the written word. At the revolutionary crossroads of magic, betrayal, and long-forgotten truths, a naïve, compassionate royal and a determined, hunted librarian discover a dangerous world of mortal and ancient menaces.
From powerful storyteller Tobias Buckell (Crystal Rain, The Tangled Lands), a complex novel of humanity’s passion for the written word. At the revolutionary crossroads of magic, betrayal, and long-forgotten truths, a naïve, compassionate royal and a determined, hunted librarian discover a dangerous world of mortal and ancient menaces.
The life of the youngest musketress of Ninetha has been one of hard training. But Lilith’s days have also contained many pleasures, the royal privileges of her family’s guardianship of the Cornucopia, a mystical source of limitless bounty. Lilith has never seen a book, and she never expects to encounter one within the safety of the citadel.
When Ishmael, an outcast librarian, shows up outside the Afriq Gate, Lilith saves him from immediate execution by her father’s second-in-command, the zealot Kira. As Lilith’s curiosity draws her to Ishmael, she lets slip her family’s most dangerous secret to Kira, sparking a deadly rebellion and an unexpected journey full of stunning revelations.
“Buckell’s writing always satisfies, and A Stranger in the Citadel brings it: tense, explosive oh-my-god-what-will-they-do-now action; appealing characters you care about, even when you deplore what they do; rich, surprising worldbuilding; a fascinating story of words and the people who guard them. Gotta love hero librarians, especially in times like these. Gotta love clever metatextual references. Gotta love the youth-dem determined to fix the world, naivete be damned.”
—Nalo Hopkinson, author of Falling in Love with Hominids
“With A Stranger In The Citadel, Tobias Buckell writes to the moment we live in, with a clarity and urgency that only fable can provide. Read it.”
—John Scalzi, author of The Kaiju Preservation Society
Praise for Tobias Buckell
[STARRED REVIEW] “Buckell has written a smart and well-constructed tale that’s filled with excitement and the flavor of the Caribbean isles.” —Kirkus
“Buckell’s consistent efforts at creating marketable novels with crossover potential can be seen as revolutionary acts, attempts to stand the genre’s financial hierarchy on its head. Technical competence and knowledge of one’s intended audience become tools for resisting erasure.” —Los Angeles Review of Books
“Buckell delivers double helpings of action and violence in a plot-driven story worthy of a good blockbuster.” —Publishers Weekly
“A writer to shelve there with C. J. Cherryh, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons and those few other writers who have managed to adopt the advantages of mainstream literature without giving up the skilled storytelling and sense of wonder of old-style SF.” —Critical Mass
“If the Hernandez Brothers of Love and Rockets fame could channel Arthur Clarke and Hal Clement, they’d probably write like Tobias Buckell. His multicultural protagonists and point of view, combined with his hard-SF inclinations and expertise, conspire to deliver freshly conceived and spicy-flavored space opera.” —Sci-Fi Weekly
Called “violent, poetic and compulsively readable” by Maclean’s, science-fiction author Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times bestselling writer and World Fantasy Award winner. He is biracial, and was born in the Caribbean, grew up in Grenada, and spent time in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. His Xenowealth series begins with Crystal Rain. Along with other stand-alone novels and his almost one hundred stories, Buckell’s works have been translated into twenty different languages, and he has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Buckell currently lives in Bluffton, Ohio, with his wife and two daughters. He’s online at www.TobiasBuckell.com.
A Stranger in the Citadel
Tobias Buckelll
“With A Stranger In The Citadel, Tobias Buckell writes to the moment we live in, with a clarity and urgency that only fable can provide. Read it.”
—John Scalzi, author of The Kaiju Preservation Society
From powerful storyteller Tobias S. Buckell (Crystal Rain), a complex novel of humanity’s passion for the written word. At the revolutionary crossroads of magic, betrayal, and long-forgotten truths, a naïve, compassionate royal and a determined, hunted librarian discover a dangerous world of mortal and ancient menaces.
A Stranger in the Citadel
by Tobias Buckelll
ISBN: 978-1-61696-398-9 (print); 978-1-61696-399-6 (digital)
Published: October 2023
Available Format(s): trade paperback; digital
From powerful storyteller Tobias Buckell (Crystal Rain, The Tangled Lands), a complex novel of humanity’s passion for the written word. At the revolutionary crossroads of magic, betrayal, and long-forgotten truths, a naïve, compassionate royal and a determined, hunted librarian discover a dangerous world of mortal and ancient menaces.
The life of the youngest musketress of Ninetha has been one of hard training. But Lilith’s days have also contained many pleasures, the royal privileges of her family’s guardianship of the Cornucopia, a mystical source of limitless bounty. Lilith has never seen a book, and she never expects to encounter one within the safety of the citadel.
When Ishmael, an outcast librarian, shows up outside the Afriq Gate, Lilith saves him from immediate execution by her father’s second-in-command, the zealot Kira. As Lilith’s curiosity draws her to Ishmael, she lets slip her family’s most dangerous secret to Kira, sparking a deadly rebellion and an unexpected journey full of stunning revelations.
“Buckell’s writing always satisfies, and A Stranger in the Citadel brings it: tense, explosive oh-my-god-what-will-they-do-now action; appealing characters you care about, even when you deplore what they do; rich, surprising worldbuilding; a fascinating story of words and the people who guard them. Gotta love hero librarians, especially in times like these. Gotta love clever metatextual references. Gotta love the youth-dem determined to fix the world, naivete be damned.”
—Nalo Hopkinson, author of Falling in Love with Hominids
“With A Stranger In The Citadel, Tobias Buckell writes to the moment we live in, with a clarity and urgency that only fable can provide. Read it.”
—John Scalzi, author of The Kaiju Preservation Society
Praise for Tobias Buckell
[STARRED REVIEW] “Buckell has written a smart and well-constructed tale that’s filled with excitement and the flavor of the Caribbean isles.”
—Kirkus
“Buckell’s consistent efforts at creating marketable novels with crossover potential can be seen as revolutionary acts, attempts to stand the genre’s financial hierarchy on its head. Technical competence and knowledge of one’s intended audience become tools for resisting erasure.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books
“Buckell delivers double helpings of action and violence in a plot-driven story worthy of a good blockbuster.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A writer to shelve there with C. J. Cherryh, Alastair Reynolds, Dan Simmons and those few other writers who have managed to adopt the advantages of mainstream literature without giving up the skilled storytelling and sense of wonder of old-style SF.”
—Critical Mass
“If the Hernandez Brothers of Love and Rockets fame could channel Arthur Clarke and Hal Clement, they’d probably write like Tobias Buckell. His multicultural protagonists and point of view, combined with his hard-SF inclinations and expertise, conspire to deliver freshly conceived and spicy-flavored space opera.”
—Sci-Fi Weekly
Called “violent, poetic and compulsively readable” by Maclean’s, science-fiction author Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times bestselling writer and World Fantasy Award winner. He is biracial, and was born in the Caribbean, grew up in Grenada, and spent time in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. His Xenowealth series begins with Crystal Rain. Along with other stand-alone novels and his almost one hundred stories, Buckell’s works have been translated into twenty different languages, and he has been nominated for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Buckell currently lives in Bluffton, Ohio, with his wife and two daughters. He’s online at www.TobiasBuckell.com.