Natania Barronis the author of dozens of short stories, a fistful of novellas, and a few novels. All of these works contain monsters of one variety of another, but not all of them wear monstrous skins.

Her work has appeared in Weird Tales, EscapePod, Steampunk Tales, Crossed Genres, Bull Spec, and various anthologies. Her longer works run the gamut from Edwardian urban fantasy to tales of the rock and roll world.

When not traveling through imagined worlds, she lives in North Carolina with her family, where she traipses through the forest on a regular basis, bakes incessantly, drinks an inordinate amount of tea, and dreams of someday owning a haunted house of her own. She is, at heart, a hobbit—albeit one with a Tookish streak a league wide.

Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron

Maddie Angler is a failed art history graduate student living in Amherst, Massachusetts. When her boyfriend of five years, a brilliant physics doctorate student named Alvin, disappears one February evening, Maddie's world abruptly falls apart. To help cope with matters, she takes over as caretaker for Alvin's mentally challenged brother, Randy.

After spending a year trying to reconcile with Alvin's loss, and discovering hints of his infidelity, she is on the verge of accepting the inevitable—that Alvin killed himself. But when she is confronted by Alvin's old professor, Dr. Keats, she learns some disturbing news: Alvin is very much alive. He's just not in this world.

Despite her attempts to deny Dr. Keats's claims, Maddie is taken against her will across worlds and given the opportunity to speak to Alvin one last time. In the process, she discovers that she is merely a small player in quite a large universe, and that that her own world—in fact, her own self—is but a variation on a theme. If she has any hopes of returning home alive, she must learn to look into the mirror and face her true self, in all its many forms, or else lose those she loves the most.

CURATOR'S NOTE

Pilgrim of the Sky by Natania Barron is a heady fusion of steampunk, goddess worship…and porous parallel universes in which god avatars mingle and clash in ever-shifting alliances. Maddie Angler is a failed art history graduate student living in Amherst, Massachusetts whose boyfriend, a brilliant physics doctorate student named Alvin, has disappeared without warning or trace. After spending a year trying to reconcile with Alvin's loss, and discovering hints of his infidelity, she is on the verge of accepting the inevitable—that Alvin killed himself. But then she's confronted by Alvin's old professor with the news that Alvin is very much alive, but just not in this world. Against her will, Maddie is taken across worlds and given the opportunity to speak to Alvin one last time. In the process, she discovers that she and her world are but variations on a theme. If she has any hopes of returning home alive, she must learn to face her true self, in all its many forms, or else lose those she loves the most. – Athena Andreadis

 

REVIEWS

  • "Steampunk meets goddess worship in this unusual and highly original story of loves that cross the borders of time and space. Exploring the concept of multiple universes and the social, artistic, scientific, and religious differences among them, Barron's debut is an sf adventure that mixes high action with exquisitely detailed depictions of everyday existence in these alternate worlds."

    – Library Journal

  • "… a lush, dreamy fable – both vintage gothic, and modern mystery … lovingly laced with magic and darkness from start to finish."

    – Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker

  • "Barron's book is a sexy trek through alternate worlds, with a fascinating and detailed mythology. This one is a steampunk tale that doesn't play by the rules."

    – Mur Lafferty, author and podcaster of Heaven and Hell
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Just one last box. That was Maddie's mantra. The rest of the apartment was empty, with the exception of a broom and the blinds. Five years of entrances and exits, of kisses and arguments, of conversations and pillow talk; it all became very final for Maddie Angler as she dropped the last box on the front stoop and shut the door one last time.

She felt her chest twist with the memories. Of Alvin. Of everything they'd had. Everything she'd lost.

Alvin was dead, after all. At least that's what Maddie had to believe. A year of searching for clues with the help of private investigators and half the police force of Amherst, Massachu-setts, had turned up nothing. He'd gone out for a walk one day, and never come back. She'd been left to pick up the pieces.

But that wasn't all. The last box was more than just a jumble of Alvin's unfinished dissertation research. It was part of a promise Maddie had made to herself: When she moved out of their Amity Street apartment, she was going to move on, too. With everything. And that meant severing herself from Alvin's mother and his brother, Randy.

They were waiting for her down by the street. Waiting for her to say goodbye. And Maddie knew that the moment she turned around to see them, everything would get harder than it already was.