With the help of the fine folks at GoodReads we’re giving away Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, and World Fantasy award finalist R. B. Lemberg’s YOKE OF STARS, the new novella set in the popular Birdverse universe.

This is a story about trauma and strife and magic, of stars that hold and bind and devour, and maybe, just maybe, it’s about the possibility of something else beyond the hurt and pain. The way the stories in the book touch and interweave, the way the characters in them tug and pull at each other, is beautifully done—and I love how deftly Lemberg pulls all the threads together into a complex, striking weave.

Maria Haskins, author of Wolves and Girls

Haunting, nuanced, and hopeful, Yoke of Stars is essential reading. Lemberg refuses to look away from the hurt we can do to one another, while reminding us that through listening, labor, and mutual support, we can reject patterns of harm and cultivate something better. In these hard times, Yoke of Stars feels as necessary as air, as water, as kindness.

Izzy Wasserstein, author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart

In this newest novella from the queer, mystical Birdverse, an apprentice assassin and an inquisitive linguist share their tales in order to make a fateful decision. Lush and lyrical, R. B. Lemberg’s cross-cultural tale of the beauty of language is a paean to the transformative power of storytelling.

In the School of Assassins, Stone Orphan waits for a first assignment. After their first kill, they will graduate and attain the coveted cloth of bone. But instead of a commission, Stone Orphan gets an inquisitive linguist, Ulín. Ulín has heard the Orphan Star’s song of despair, mirroring her own, and drawing her to the School of Assassins. But Ulín is far more interested in learning Stone Orphan’s language than deciding whom she wishes to kill.

Unable to contain their curiosity, Stone Orphan offers to exchange stories with Ulín to help her decide the fate of three men. By turns, Stone Orphan and Ulín narrate tales of love, suffering, exile, and self-determination, and two hurt souls find hope in each other through the radical act of listening.

For fellow word-nerds, Lemberg’s linguistic explorations are a thought-provoking journey into how language influences all of us. Lemberg’s command of language and narrative nuance makes this a haunting, beautiful read.

—Marian Crane, author of the Lonhra Sequence