SL Huang

Speculative fiction author. Mathematician. Gunslinger.

Novel Announcements

THE WATER OUTLAWS is out!

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The Water Outlaws book cover shows a woman with a weapon on a rearing horse, martial arts bandits in the background

Buy links in the US * Buy links in the UK

A 2023 Pick for Vulture | Men’s Health | IGN | Polygon | Goodreads | Amazon | Nerd Daily | WeAreBookish| Paste | Books, Bones & Buffy | The Escapist | Paste Magazine | SciFixFantasy | Distractify | Gizmodo| Ms. Magazine | Popsugar | Book Riot | Autostraddle| The Mary Sue & others

Inspired by a classic of martial arts literature, S. L. Huang’s The Water Outlaws are bandits of devastating ruthlessness, unseemly femininity, dangerous philosophies, and ungovernable gender who are ready to make history―or tear it apart.

“S.L. Huang’s new epic fantasy is a battle cry of a book. . . . A glorious, wuxia-inspired saga of femme and queer resistance in the face of oppression.”―BookPage, starred review

In the jianghu, you break the law to make it your own.

Lin Chong is an expert arms instructor, training the Emperor’s soldiers in sword and truncheon, battle axe and spear, lance and crossbow. Unlike bolder friends who flirt with challenging the unequal hierarchies and values of Imperial society, she believes in keeping her head down and doing her job.

Until a powerful man with a vendetta rips that carefully-built life away.

Disgraced, tattooed as a criminal, and on the run from an Imperial Marshall who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Lin Chong is recruited by the Bandits of Liangshan. Mountain outlaws on the margins of society, the Liangshan Bandits proclaim a belief in justice―for women, for the downtrodden, for progressive thinkers a corrupt Empire would imprison or destroy. They’re also murderers, thieves, smugglers, and cutthroats.

Apart, they love like demons and fight like tigers. Together, they could bring down an empire.

Buy it now in the US!

Buy it now in the UK!

CRITICAL POINT is almost here! And you can get the paperback of NULL SET

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Null Set cover

Woop woop I’m way late on updating my news feed again. The big stuff is that Null Set came out in paperback a few months ago — heck yeah! In this time of pandemic you can order it from your favorite online retailer or get your local indie to ship it to you. (I love local indies so much… I hope they all come through this okay.)

Next, coming this week — Tuesday, in fact! — the third book, Critical Point, is hitting internet shopping portals everywhere! (Doesn’t have the same ring as “stores”, does it?) Preorders are on! Critical Point is a brand new book, never before seen ever. That means if you read Zero Sum Game and Null Set, this is the next adventure in the series, but if you were reading the self-published versions of the books a thousand years ago (oh god what is time, March was about three millennia long), this is ALSO the next book in the series for you. For more details, see this page.

But the main point is — Critical Point! Brand new! Totally awesome! I’m excited!

In my head, I like to call this one either “the one with all the explosions” or “the one that is (finally) super gay.” Both of these descriptions make me very happy.

I’ll be updating this news feed over the weekend with a bunch of virtual events I’m doing next week to promote Critical Point. If you’ve wanted to come to an event or signing with me and have never been able to because geography, virtual events at least have the upside of not being pinned down to anywhere in the world… so that’s a plus side. I’ll also be sending out more details in my newsletter, which you can sign up for here!

I hope everyone is doing as okay as possible. Stay safe, stay well.

The Publication of NULL SET

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Null Set cover

So this is what happens when you come home from a month of book promotion travel to a deadline on the third book and subsequently bury yourself in meeting said deadline — you completely forget to post the ACTUALFAX ACTUALNEWS of Book 2’s publication on your website!

NULL SET came out on July 9. Here’s the blurb:

Math-genius mercenary Cas Russell has decided to Fight Crime(tm). After all, with her extraordinary mathematical ability, she can neuter bombs or out-shoot an army. And the recent outbreak of violence in the world’s cities is Cas’s own fault—she’s the one who crushed the organization of telepaths keeping the world’s worst offenders under control.

But Cas’s own power also has a history, one she can’t remember—or control. One that’s creeping into her mind and fracturing her sanity…just when she’s gotten herself on the hit list of every crime lord on the West Coast. And her best, only, sociopathic friend. Cas won’t be able to save the world. She might not even be able to save herself.

You can buy it today in hardcover, ebook, or audio!

Book 2 of the Cas Russell Series: NULL SET

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Null Set cover

As announced at Barnes and Noble…

I realized that in the midst of all the Zero Sum Game publicity, I neglected to post this Very Important Bit of Amazing: the sequel has a cover!

And a TITLE!

Wot wot.

Null Set is coming to both stores and internets near you in the summer of 2019!

Oh, and for those of you who were following the series when it was self-published, this is a very significant rewrite of what was Plastic Smile (book 4 of the original editions). You may notice that there’s some reshuffling and reordering happening. If you read the self-published versions of any of books 1-3, you can jump straight to Null Set. Any more questions? Check out the FAQ or The Cas Russell Series Explained, which I’ve updated to try to make sure everyone feels clear!

And if you didn’t read any of the self-published versions, you can safely ignore all this and look forward to Null Set as book 2 after Zero Sum Game. Woohoo!

Half a Year of Updates

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It turns out that when I’m on Facebook and Twitter and have a newsletter, I become terrible at updating a blog. Oops. To stay more current, follow me those places!

I last posted here that the Cas Russell books are coming to Tor — YEEHAW! This year has been a whirlwind of preparation for the big re-release, including a series of stellar edits with my editor at Tor, Diana Gill.

I’ve also had two more short stories published in the meantime, which I neglected to post about at the time:

  • “Split Shadow” in the anthology Haunted Futures. Publishers Weekly said of my story: “the outstanding ‘Split Shadow’ by S.L. Huang, an essential portrayal of mental health attitudes and treatment.”
  • “Time Travel Is Only For the Poor” in Analog Science Fiction & Fact. This one’s a tale of when society starts trying to use technology to “fix” what it sees as social ills…
  • And “The Last Robot” also got an audio recording! Check it out here!

Finally, my writer friend Maddox Hahn and I started a charity Patreon we’re calling The Ink Harpies — once we hit $200, we’ll start releasing new short stories through it! I’m planning to post a bit more behind the scenes stuff about my publishing journey on the news feed as well.

So that’s what’s been happening — what’s coming up?

Zero Sum Game, of course, with the big re-release in October. But there’s more! I’ll have at least three short stories and novelettes dropping this year, including “The Woman Who Destroyed Us” in MIT Press’s Twelve Tomorrows anthology, alongside with stories by Elizabeth Bear, Liu Cixin, Ken Liu, Nnedi Okorafor, and more. And I’ll have novella in the “Hunting Monsters” universe coming out from The Book Smugglers!

Lastly, something really exciting — you can meet me in meatspace this year! I’ll be heading back to the United States, and you’ll be able to find me at the following events:

  • Wiscon (May 2018, Madison WI)
  • BookCon (June 2018, NYC), where I’ll be on this panel with Charlie Jane Anders, V.E. Schwab, and Seth Dickinson
  • This Twelve Tomorrows promotional event, with Ken Liu and Elizabeth Bear (June 2018, Boston)
  • Worldcon (August 2018, San Jose)
  • New York City Comic Con (October 2018, NYC)

(That list might change a bit as the year goes on — subscribe to my newsletter for up-to-date announcements.)

If you’re going to be at any of those, come say hi!

That’s the plan ramping up to my Zero Sum Game release. And after THAT…

After that, we shall see. 😀

(If you really, really want me to do an event near your town? Email me or tweet me and tell me so. No guarantees, but I can try!)