The Siege of Burning Grass - by Premee Mohamed

About the Book

Alefret, the founder of Varkal's pacifist resistance, was bombed and maimed by his own government, locked up in a secret prison and tortured by a 'visionary' scientist. But now they're offering him a chance of freedom. Ordered to infiltrate one of Med'ariz's flying cities, obeying the bloodthirsty zealot Qhudur, he must find fellow anti-war activists in the enemy's population and provoke them into an uprising against their rulers. He should refuse to serve the warmongers, but what if he could end this pointless war once and for all? Is that worth compromising his own morals and the principles of his fellow resistance members?

Book Synopsis

A stunning meditation on war, nationalism, violence and courage by a rising star of the genre.

The Empires of Varkal and Med'ariz have always been at war.

Alefret, the founder of Varkal's pacifist resistance, was bombed and maimed by his own government, locked up in a secret prison and tortured by a 'visionary' scientist. But now they're offering him a chance of freedom.

Ordered to infiltrate one of Med'ariz's flying cities, obeying the bloodthirsty zealot Qhudur, he must find fellow anti-war activists in the enemy's population and provoke them into an uprising against their rulers.

He should refuse to serve the warmongers, but what if he could end this pointless war once and for all? Is that worth compromising his own morals and the principles of his fellow resistance members?

Review Quotes

"Gritty yet poetic." --New Scientist

"Siege and Mohamed both seem like ones to watch." --Kajal Magazine

"A feat of worldbuilding, moral complexity, and taut, precisely paced storytelling. After this, I'm ready to hunt down everything else Mohamed has ever written." --Esquire

"A raging treatise, fascinating fantasy, and bittersweet character study; the fact that it's delivered in beautiful prose is truly the cherry on top." --Reactor

"An engrossing, unflinching story. Premee's world of floating cities, medicinal wasps, and nations at war is both richly imagined and heartrending." --Darcie Little Badger, author of Elatsoe

"Dark, complex and powerful" --Claire North, author of Notes from the Burning Age

"Elegiac, elegant, Mohamed is merciless in how she holds the world to task for its cruelties and effortless in how she presents its horrors. This is a book with its heart on its sleeve, but also one that tells of how many have been left in the ground." --Cassandra Khaw, USA Today best-selling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

"Haunting and insightful... This is not for the faint of heart." --Publishers Weekly

"I plunged into The Siege of Burning Grass knowing nothing except that Premee Mohamed wrote it. What more did I need? And yet, it astonished me. A colossal work of fiction and philosophy, Siege is something like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind meets The Things They Carried by way of The Brothers Karamazov. I loved Alefret, Mohamed's monstrous man of peace, instantly and wholly. I feared for him, I suffered with him, I raged alongside him, all against a backdrop of gorgeous and lonely immensity. I wanted nothing for days but to be reading this book." --C. S. E. Cooney, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Saint Death's Daughter

"Imagine The Good Soldier Svejk and George Smiley sitting down with a large bottle of absinthe and the scene being painted by Hieronymus Bosch. Or, more practically, you could read The Siege of Burning Grass and get a very similar effect. Why would you deny yourself an experience like that?" --Jonathan L. Howard, author of Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

"Premee Mohamed has quickly become one of my auto-buy authors." --Book Riot

"Premee Mohamed is a fantastic new voice in speculative fiction, one of the most innovative, original, and exciting writers of recent years, full of fresh perspectives, scintillating narratives, and insightful comments on our world today." --Ada Palmer, author of Too Like the Lightning

"Superb." --Locus

"This book has urgent things to say about the world at war, and now more than ever, you need to hear them." --Vajra Chandrasekera, author of the Crawford, Nebula and Locus Award-winning The Saint of Bright Doors

About the Author

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, British Fantasy, and Crawford awards. She is an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod and the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues.