Word Puppets
A chronological short-story collection blending fantasy, sci-fi, and alternate history, with recurring themes of loss, AI, and time travel.
First published 2015 · Lady Astronaut Universe
More about this book
The Story
Word Puppets is a 19-story collection of short speculative fiction by Mary Robinette Kowal, arranged in chronological order of writing. The stories span fantasy, science fiction, alternate history, and related modes, with many standalone pieces and a few that connect to one another or to the Lady Astronaut universe.
Across the collection, characters face prophecies, alien cultures, time travel, puppetry, cloning, artificial intelligence, weather control, and other unusual systems. The stories often center on intimate human problems inside speculative frames: family obligation, love, memory, identity, grief, ethics, and the costs of power.
The volume includes an introduction by Patrick Rothfuss and ends with stories tied to the Lady Astronaut continuity, including a new story original to this collection. Readers repeatedly note the collection’s range, emotional intensity, and the visible development of the author’s craft over time.
Semantic profile
Labels extracted for this book. Use a category to find books similar in that specific way.
pick an axis to find more →
Setting
Find similar in setting →Find similar books by
Combine common axes
Connected books
Explore alla few you'll probably love ↓
Try another direction
More by Mary Robinette Kowal
In the Lady Astronaut Universe series
Shown by first publication year; this may not be reading order.
Details
- Authors
- Mary Robinette Kowal
- First published
- 2015
- Genres
- Fantasy, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction, Time Travel, Collections, Alternate History
- Subjects
- American Short storiesFiction, fantasy, general
- ISBN-13
- 9781607014560
[DEV NOTE: Eventually use our own synthesized data.]