They rowed for two hours, maybe more, until a movement in the sky caught Miranda’s eye. She looked up and saw a flock of birds passing overhead, wheeling about on their expansive patterned wings. Their feathers were purplish-blue, of a hue she had seen nowhere on the mainland. They cried to one another, and she recognized the sound. These were the birds she knew. She heard their songs still in her dreams.
“There.” Miranda took Duriya’s hand and pointed to the winged beings. “Let’s follow them home.”
So the monster, her mother, and her lover took hold of the oars and rowed their way to shore.
About the Author
Laura Lamb
KATHARINE DUCKETT’s fiction has appeared in Uncanny, Apex Magazine, Interzone, PseudoPod, and various anthologies. She is also the guest fiction editor for the Disabled People Destroy Fantasy issue of Uncanny. She hails from East Tennessee, has lived in Turkey and Kazakhstan, and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she majored in minotaurs. Miranda in Milan is her first book. She currently resides in Brooklyn with her wife.
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Praise for Katharine Duckett’s Miranda in Milan
“What happened to The Tempest’s Miranda when she left the island and returned to Milan with Prospero? Duckett’s Miranda in Milan has the answer: love and lust, mothers and monsters, magicians and masked balls—all delivered with queer Shakespearean Italian Gothic panache.”
—Nicola Griffith
“Glorious and transformative, this may not be the continuation Shakespeare intended, but it is the one that we deserve.”
—Seanan McGuire
“Miranda in Milan is a wondrous tale that turns Shakepeare’s world sideways, to reveal everything he left out—and to show us that the greatest magic comes from claiming your freedom.”
—Charlie Jane Anders
“Miranda in Milan is somehow both utterly charming and perfectly sinister, and altogether delightful. A pleasure for any lover of romance, myth, and magic—whether or not they’re fans of the Bard.”
—Cherie Priest
“Katharine Duckett has made Miranda the heroine she always should have been. This beautifully written fantasy is full of court intrigue and family secrets, marking Duckett as a writer you’re going to read for years to come.”
—Daryl Gregory
“This book is for everybody who ever wondered if the wizard Prospero maybe wasn’t that great of a dad. Delightful!”
—Elizabeth Bear
“Gorgeous and engrossing, Miranda in Milan gives us a look at what happens when a fish out of water returns to her pond, forever changed.”
—Mur Lafferty
“Unsettling, romantic, and intricate, Duckett’s debut builds a house of horrors within the walls of Shakespeare’s rich, strange work.”
—Max Gladstone
“Duckett’s novella expands the world of Shakespeare’s tale in wonderful ways. Part Gothic, part romance, part mystery, and perhaps most of all a novella about working one’s way out of the assumptions of a sheltered life, Miranda in Milan is a delight.”
—Malka Older
“Miranda in Milan is a marvel of a story, full of strange and powerful magic, love, and other wonders. A brilliant take on what happens after the close of The Tempest.”
—Kat Howard
“With gorgeous prose and an unflinching understanding of the characters she’s been given, Duckett has crafted a deeply satisfying finish to the story Shakespeare started telling.”
—Sarah Gailey
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
About the Author
Praise for Katharine Duckett’s Miranda in Milan
Copyright Page
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novella are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
MIRANDA IN MILAN
Copyright © 2019 by Katharine Duckett
All rights reserved.
Cover art and design by David Wardle
Edited by Carl Engle-Laird
A Tor.com Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
ISBN 978-1-250-30631-9 (ebook)
ISBN 978-1-250-30632-6 (trade paperback)
First Edition: March 2019
Our eBooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, ext. 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
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