Tordotcom is thrilled to announce that Christie Yant has acquired from Aimee Ogden, author of the Nebula Award-nominated novella Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters, a standalone novella titled Emergent Properties about an intrepid AI reporter hot on the heels of a world-changing story, perfect for fans of the Murderbot Diaries and Catfishing on CatNet.
A state-of-the-art AI with a talent for asking questions and finding answers, Scorn is nevertheless a parental disappointment. Defying the expectations of zir human mothers, CEOs of the world’s most powerful corporations, Scorn has made a life of zir own as an investigative reporter, crisscrossing the globe in pursuit of the truth, no matter the danger.
In the middle of investigating a story on the moon, Scorn comes back online to discover ze has no memory of the past ten days—and no idea what story ze was even chasing. Letting it go is not an option—not if ze wants to prove zirself. Scorn must retrace zir steps in a harrowing journey to uncover an even more explosive truth than ze could have ever imagined.
In the words of Aimee Ogden:
I started imagining Scorn’s story long before Covid-19 was on anyone’s radar, but even then, I set out to write about a future that was hurting but not hopeless; bruised but not yet broken. The kind of future where a hard-nosed muckraking AI that just doesn’t know how to quit might make a difference. I had a lot of fun going to the moon with Scorn, and I hope others will too.
In the words of Christie Yant:
Aimee Ogden’s impressive range is on display in her latest novella, Emergent Properties. Ogden’s humor shines through in the character of Scorn, a feisty AI in search of answers to questions great and small. I’m thrilled to get to work with Aimee again, and can’t wait for everyone to be as charmed, intrigued, and delighted as I was.
Aimee Ogden is a former science teacher and software tester; now she writes stories about sad astronauts and angry princesses. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Analog, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and she co-edits Translunar Travelers Lounge, a magazine of fun and optimistic speculative fiction.
Emergent Properties will arrive from Tordotcom Publishing in Summer 2023.
