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THE BONE UNIVERSE

Welcome to a world of wind and wonder, sky and ground, heart and hope.

 
 
Tor Books, September 1, 2015. Cover by Tommy Arnold.

Tor Books, September 1, 2015. Cover by Tommy Arnold.

+ Reviews & More

Library Journal: Debut of the Month
Publishers Weekly: Fall 2015 SFF & Horror Top 10 Book
io9: Very Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books Of 2015
NPR: Cities Of Bone And Flights Of Fancy In 'Updraft' Publishers Weekly: Starred Review
Library Journal: Starred Review
Barnes & Noble: Fran Wilde’s Updraft Is a Soaring Fantasy Debut
Genrify: Favorite Reads of 2015
A.C. Wise: Favorite Novels, Anthologies, and Collections of 2015
An Avid Reader: An Avid Reader Special: Paul Weimer’s Top 5 Reads Of 2015
Tor.com: Reviewers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2015
Tenacious Reader: Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Debut Authors from 2015
Krypton Radio: Fran Wilde Soars With ‘Updraft’
Lightspeed: November 2015 Book Reviews
Barnes & Noble: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s a…City in the Sky! 8 Fantastical Airborne Societies
Barnes & Noble: 6 of the Weirdest Fantasy Worlds Ever Created
Barnes & Noble: B&N Bookseller’s Picks: The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of September 2015
Book Riot: UPDRAFT by Fran Wilde and Five Novels of Flight & Fantasy
A Dribble of Ink: Updraft soars on wings of silk and bone
HuffPost: Debut Epic Fantasies to Look Out for in 2015
Casey Blair: Excitement for 2015 Fantasy Novels
Kirkus: The Book Smugglers’ Most Coveted Speculative Fiction Titles at BEA 2015
A Dribble of Ink: Catching Fran Wilde on the Updraft
Skiffy & Fanty: Introductions: Our Theme and Our Most Anticipated Things in 2015 w/ Renay and Natalie Luhrs
SF Signal: The Cover Art for UPDRAFT, Fran Wilde’s Debut Novel, is Simply Awesome
io9: Mind-Blowing Science Fiction And Fantasy Books To Watch Out For In 2015
Kirkus: 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy and Horror Books to Look Forward to in 2015 (Part 2)
The SF Signal Podcast: The Books You Have To Read In 2015 And Why
Fantasy Cafe: A.C. Wise picks anticipated debut authors for Women in SF&F Month
The SF Signal Podcast: Everything You Wanted to Know About SF/F/H Book Publicity
A.C. Wise: Coming Attractions
GeekMom: Upcoming Reading for 2015

Updraft (Book #1)

2016 Compton Crook Award winner • 2015 Andre Norton Award for Best Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy • 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novel nominee

Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City.

As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever—if it isn't destroyed outright.

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“Extraordinary worldbuilding and cascading levels of intrigue make Wilde’s debut fantasy novel soar.” —Publishers Weekly

Updraft is Fran Wilde’s debut novel, and an absolute delight to read, a coming of age story set in a truly original world, blending romance, conspiracy, awesome training montages, and some good-old-fashioned adventure to create a book that’s impossible to put down.” —Barnes & Noble

“…The world itself is as much a character as any of the individuals within its pages, and in the grand tradition of science fiction and fantasy, the main character’s growth and struggles are bound up with learning more about the world… I galloped through it to find out what came next…” —Locus

 
 

 

Cloudbound (Book #2)

A Locus 2016 Recommended Read

The Towers are in disarray, without a governing body or any defense against the dangers lurking in the clouds, and daily life is full of terror and strife. Nat Densira, the wing-brother to Kirit (Skyshouter, Spirebreaker, no-longer-of-Densira) sets out to be a hero in his own waysitting on the new Council to cast votes protecting Tower-born, and exploring lower tiers to find more materials to repair the struggling City.

But what he finds down-tier is more secretsand now Nat will have to decide who to trust, and how to trust himself without losing those he holds most dear, before a dangerous myth raises a surprisingly realistic threat to the crippled City, in Cloudbound.

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"A thrilling and complex tale about the most difficult stage of a revolution: what do you do after you win? Highly recommended both for the story it tells as well as how it tells that story. Wilde takes risks that pay off hugely.” ―Ken Liu, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of The Grace of Kings

“I absolutely unambiguously recommend both these books, and you should go read them immediately: they’re beautifully written love letters to engineering, and full of some of the most wildly imaginative world-building I’ve read in years.” —Lightspeed

“It’s that rare bird, the follow-up to a highly praised first novel that doesn’t just equal its predecessor’s accomplishments, but exceeds them. I felt Updraft was a promising debut effort; Cloudbound sees much of that promise realised, with hints of more to come.” —Locus

 
 

 

Horizon (Book #3)

A Locus Award Best Novel nominee

A City of living bone towers crumbles to the ground and danger abounds. Kirit Densira has lost everything she loved the most―her mother, her home, and the skies above. Nat Brokenwings―once Kirit's brother long before the rebellion tore them apart―is still trying to save his family in the face of catastrophe. They will need to band together once more to ensure not just their own survival, but that of their entire community.

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“The final installment cements the setting of this Andre Norton Award-winning series as of the most imaginative we’ve encountered in recent years.” —Barnes & Noble

“Horizon finds hope and co-operation, friction and strife but also community. Horizon doesn’t so much turn from destruction to renewal as it sees destruction and renewal as things that go hand in hand. Ultimately, Horizon is a hopeful book, one about growth and truth, family and reconciliation, and building something new.” —Tor.com

“While the Rise and the songs of Updraft were about ways of living, and the song-building of Cloudbound a way to seek a future through song, the new song of Horizon tells us that there will be a future, and it is through this song that we read as we read the novel, how those future people will remember the events of the novel. It’s terribly clever, and interesting, and oh so well pulled off.” —Skiffy & Fanty

 
 

 

Short Stories

Bent the Wing, Dark the Cloud,” a short story set in the Bone Universe, appears in Beneath Ceaseless Skies in 2015.

“A Moment of Gravity, Circumscribed,” a short story set in the Bone Universe, appears in the Impossible Futures anthology edited by Thomas A. Easton and Judith K. Dial (August, 2013); it is reprinted in XIII (Resurrection House 2015).