One of my absolute favorites right now is author R.B. Lemberg, discovered at random when I signed up to read a galley of their first novel, THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES. Jaw. drop. I was so excited when their publisher, Tachyon Publications (check out their entire catalog), reached out this past March and asked if I’d read the next one. WOULD I??!?!?!? The next one, THE UNBALANCING, is amazing.
What is visionary fiction?
R.B. Lemberg is a skilled worldbuilder, and the Birdverse is a perfect and rich example of what speculative fiction is meant to do. The world they’ve created is one in which “they” is a given: there’s room for all kinds of fluidity, neurodivergence, sexual preference (or not) and gender expression. Chances are that if any of these things are especially important in your life, you’ll feel seen here in a way that is joyous, powerful and necessary.
A remarkable addition to pagan-inspired fantasy novellas, The Four Profound Weaves, is a wonderful parable exploring transgender experience, the cyclical nature empires, and the power of faith and courage.
Eternal Haunted Summer
Welcome to the Hive, RB. This September you’ll be taking readers back to the Birdverse in your first full-length novel in the series, The Unbalancing. What can readers expect?
The Fantasy Hive
The Unbalancing is a lyrical mix of queer romance, nonbinary-centric worldbuilding, a disaster story, and explorations of magic, queer community, friendships, loss, and hope. Readers should also expect a grumpy ancestral ghost and a very determined ginger cat.
More books need cat in them we feel.
Tell us more about starkeeper Ranra and poet Erígra!
The two alternating narrators of The Unbalancing couldn’t be more different – Erígra Lilún is a dreamy poet who loves to spend their days in solitude pruning trees in the ancient quince grove and scribbling in their notebook. Ranra cannot stand still, and in fact, can often be spotted running around and making things happen extremely fast. The two are brought together, perhaps, by their mutual fascination with the Star of the Tides, an unruly mass of magic asleep in the sea, whose restless tossing and turning is about to become more desperate. But I think, in the end of the day, Ranra and Lilún are brought together by a kind of irresistible mix of mutual fascination and bewilderment that could keep them circling each other for a long time if things weren’t exploding. Things are exploding.
ISBN: Trade paperback 978-1-61696-380-4; Digital 978-1-61696-381-1
Published: September 2022
Available Format(s): trade paperback and digital
Reading this book is like diving into the most beautiful language exploring various aspects of human possibility. Everything in this book is so fluid from the words, the setting itself, but also the characters—the way they think, the way they feel, and the way they present.
—Infinite Text
In this first full-length novel from the acclaimed Birdverse, new love blossoms between an impatient starkeeper and a reclusive poet as they try together to save their island home. Nebula, Locus, and Ignyte finalist R. B. Lemberg (The Four Profound Weaves) has crafted a gorgeous tale of the inevitable transformations of communities and their worlds. The Unbalancing is rooted in the mystical cosmology, neurodiversity, and queerness that infuses Lemberg’s lyrical prose, which has invited glowing comparisons to N. K. Jemisin, Patricia A. McKillip, and Ursula K. LeGuin.
In a narrative by turns gentle and implacable, Lemberg writes movingly and magnificently about disaster, survival, and hope.
—Kate Elliott, author of the Crown of Stars series
Beneath the waters by the islands of Gelle-Geu, a star sleeps restlessly. The celebrated new starkeeper Ranra Kekeri, who is preoccupied by the increasing tremors, confronts the problems left behind by her predecessor.
Meanwhile, the poet Erígra Lilún, who merely wants to be left alone, is repeatedly asked by their ancestor Semberí to take over the starkeeping helm. Semberí insists upon telling Lilún mysterious tales of the deliverance of the stars by the goddess Bird.
When Ranra and Lilún meet, sparks begin to fly. An unforeseen configuration of their magical deepnames illuminates the trouble under the tides. For Ranra and Lilún, their story is just beginning; for the people of Gelle-Geu, it may well be too late to save their home.
R. B Lemberg’s Birdverse is one of my favorite places to visit, full of queer possibilities and deep emotional and philosophical musings. In THE UNBALANCING they give us wonder, devastation, resilience, and love. Lemberg’s poetic voice makes even the harshest explorations of loss beautiful, and manages to balance grief and horror with hope and joy.
—Julia Rios, Hugo Award-winning editor of Uncanny Magazine
Hosted by Raven Book Store, R. B. Lemberg’s discusses THE FOUR PROFOUND WEAVES with the renowned Kate Elliott, author of Unconquerable Sun, on Thursday, September 3 7PM CDT. Please save your spot for this special event.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Two transgender elders must learn to weave from Death in order to defeat an evil ruler–in the debut full-length work set in R. B. Lemberg’s award-winning queer fantasy Birdverse universe.
“The Four Profound Weaves is the anti-authoritarian, queer-mystical fairy tale we need right now.” –Annalee Newitz, author of The Future of Another Timeline
“A beautiful, heartfelt story of change, family, identity, and courage.” —Library Journal, starred review
The Surun’ nomads do not speak of the master weaver, Benesret, who creates the cloth of bone for assassins in the Great Burri Desert. But aged Uiziya must find her aunt in order to learn the final weave, although the price for knowledge may be far too dear to pay.Among the Khana in the springflower city of Iyar, women travel in caravans to trade, while men remain in the inner quarter, as scholars. A nameless man struggles to embody Khana masculinity, after many years of performing the life of a woman, trader, wife, and grandmother.As his past catches up, the nameless man must choose between the life he dreamed of and Uiziya–while Uiziya must discover how to challenge the evil Ruler of Iyar, and to weave from deaths that matter.In this breathtaking debut set in R. B. Lemberg’s beloved Birdverse, The Four Profound Weaves offers a timeless chronicle of claiming one’s identity in a hostile world.About the Birdverse: The Birdverse is the creation of fantasy author R. B. Lemberg. It is a complex, culturally diverse world, with a range of LGBTQIA characters and different family configurations. Named after its deity, Bird, Birdverse shorter works have been nominated the Nebula, Hugo, Tiptree award, and Rhysling awards. The Four Profound Weaves is the first full-length work set in the Birdverse.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:
R.B. Lemberg writes, “I am a queer, bigender immigrant from Eastern Europe to the US. I began writing in my early thirties, when I finally chose the language for my poetry and prose: English, which is either my third, fourth, or fifth (quasi)native tongue. The struggle for language, for voice, and the often uneasy melding of cultures and viewpoints inform my life and my writing.
My pronouns are they/them/theirs.
I was born in Ukraine, and lived in subarctic Russia and Israel before coming to the US for graduate school at UC Berkeley. I am a sociolinguist, and I work as an associate professor at a Midwestern university. My spouse is Bogi Takács, a fellow queer, trans, and Eastern European Jewish person. “
Kate Elliott has been writing stories since she was nine years old, which has led her to believe that writing, like breathing, keeps her alive. As a child in rural Oregon, she made up stories because she longed to escape to a world of lurid adventure fiction.
Her most recent novel is Unconquerable Sun, gender swapped Alexander the Great in space. She is also known for her Crown of Stars epic fantasy series, the Afro-Celtic post-Roman alt-history fantasy (with lawyer dinosaurs) Cold Magic and sequels, the science fiction Novels of the Jaran and YA fantasy Court of Fives, and the epic fantasy Crossroads trilogy with giant justice eagles.
Her particular focus is immersive world building & centering women in epic stories of adventure & transformative cultural change. She lives in Hawaii, where she paddles outrigger canoes & spoils her schnauzer. You can find her online at kateelliott.substack.com and @KateElliottSFF on Twitter.
