The Spare Man

The Spare Man is a 2023 Hugo Award finalist.

Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in space with her talent for creating glittering high-society in this stylish SF mystery, The Spare Man.

Tesla Crane, a brilliant inventor and an heiress, is on her honeymoon on an interplanetary space liner, cruising between the Moon and Mars. She’s traveling incognito and is reveling in her anonymity. Then someone is murdered and the festering chowderheads who run security have the audacity to arrest her spouse. Armed with banter, martinis and her small service dog, Tesla is determined to solve the crime so that the newlyweds can get back to canoodling—and keep the real killer from striking again.

John Scalzi said, “Rarely is science fiction as entertaining and fun as ‘The Spare Man’ is from start to finish. Mary Robinette Kowal is a modern master of the genre.”

Publisher’s Weekly said, “Kowal expertly weaves in red herrings and twists right up to the unmasking of the killer, and punctuates the suspense with moments of sparkling wit… this is a page-turner.”

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About Mary Robinette Kowal

Author, Puppeteer, Narrator

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Lady Astronaut duology and historical fantasy novels: The Glamourist Histories series and Ghost Talkers.

She’s a member of the awardwinning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Nebula, and Locus awards. Stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, several Year’s Best anthologies and her collections Word Puppets and Scenting the Dark and Other Stories.

Her novel Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen novels to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in a single year. As a professional puppeteer and voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), Mary Robinette has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures, and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve. She records fiction for authors such as Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.

Mary Robinette lives in Nashville with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.

Events

MRK onsite Instructor at Sandia Starforgers Writers Retreat & Workshop

– What are you doing in April? – I’d love for you to join me at a new writers retreat and workshop in Albuquerque, New Mexico being organized by my friend and New Mexico author, Marie Parks. The curriculum is designed for science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and other speculative fiction writers at any stage of their […]

12 Apr

Patreon Class: What Drives a Genre

– April Patreon Class What Drives a Genre Most genres break down into two types, structure genres (mystery, romance) vs Aesthetic genres (science-fiction, fantasy). We’re going to look at what the major drivers are and how you can mix them to make your fiction feel fresh. Each Patreon class will be recorded and the recording, […]

29 Apr

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