ADA HOFFMANN is a Canadian graduate student trying to teach computers to write poetry. Her critically acclaimed speculative short stories and poems have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov's, Uncanny, and two year's best anthologies. Ada was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome at 13, and is passionate about autistic self-advocacy. She is a former semi-professional soprano, a tabletop gamer and an active LARPer, she lives in southern Ontario with a very polite black cat.

The Outside 2: The Fallen by Ada Hoffmann

Longlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Novel

From the immersive and intoxicating world of The Outside, comes the exhilarating sequel from Philip K Dick and Compton Crook Award-nominated author, Ada Hoffmann.

The laws of physics acting on the planet of Jai have been forever upended; its surface completely altered, and its inhabitants permanently changed, causing chaos. Fearing heresy, the artificially intelligent Gods that once ruled the galaxy became the planet's jailers.

Tiv Hunt, who once trusted these Gods completely, spends her days helping the last remaining survivors of Jai. Everyone is fighting for their freedom and they call out for drastic action from their saviour, Tiv's girlfriend Yasira. But Yasira has become deeply ill, debilitated by her Outside exposure, and is barely able to breathe, let alone lead a revolution.

Hunted by the Gods and Akavi, the disgraced angel, Yasira and Tiv must delve further than ever before into the maddening mysteries of their fractured planet in order to save – or perhaps even destroy – their fading world.

CURATOR'S NOTE

This Lovecraftian space opera is a must! Do you dare step... Outside? – Lavie Tidhar

 

REVIEWS

  • "Fast-paced adventure and intricate double-crosses sweep through Hoffmann's magnificent sequel to The Outside… This eerie, beautiful vision of collective action draws equally from Warhammer 40,000; cosmic horror; and the work of Becky Chambers to create a unique, nuanced must-read."

    – Publishers Weekly, starred review

  • "In The Fallen, the effects of everything that happened in The Outside are playing out as various people struggle with where they should go next, and how they should support one another. The worldbuilding continues to be fascinating and compelling. The Fallen is a complex, nuanced book which engages thoughtfully with the costs, consequences, and decisions around resistance and rebuilding."

    – Juliet Kemp, author of The Deep and Shining Dark

  • "The forces of chaos have been set loose – but what comes next? The Fallen explores solidarity and cooperation in extreme situations with thoughtfulness and poise, weaving together a breathtaking array of themes from cosmic horror to superpowers. Ada Hoffmann's second novel brings action, excitement, and kindness surfacing in the strangest places. It warmed my tentacular heart!"

    – Bogi Takács, Hugo and Lambda Award-winning author and editor

  • "The Fallen is a novel that is interested in the nature of resistance to hegemony, in community, in connections between people. It asks questions about the need for violence in resisting violence, about the problems of power, about truth and lies, history and propaganda… Roll on the next sequel!"

    – Locus
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

The familiar door of Yonne Qun's house stood tall in its doorway. If Tiv Hunt looked straight at it and not to the right or the left, it almost looked normal. Wooden and rectangular and solid, in a gray brick wall, set with the button of a doorbell – non-functioning now – a tin knob, a tin knocker. A mail slot near the bottom, a ramp running up to the threshold. Extremely normal, except for the way the mail slot curved, like a metal mouth, grinning or frowning or smacking its lips by turns.

If Tiv turned her head, of course, she'd see the garden, a mess of surreal plants that often moved of their own volition. The street the house stood on, with a surface that twisted and rippled, was walkable but no longer suitable for bicycles or electric cars. The houses next to Qun's stood in various states of disrepair: one blasted long ago into a pile of picked-over rubble; one twisted into an impassable, un-houselike spiral; one intact, but somehow pink and dripping; a few others, like Qun's, livable with their various blemishes and clumsy repairs. This was one of the better streets. It had been six months since the Plague, and Tiv still wasn't entirely used to things looking this way. Maybe no one ever would be.

She raised a hand, shifting the heavy pack on her shoulder, and knocked. Three quick taps, a pause, and two more.

A moment passed, and the door swung open. Yonne Qun stood there: a middle-aged Riayin man, thin and lined, with medium-brown skin, very fine black hair, prominent cheekbones, and a quick, nervous smile.

"Leader," he murmured in Riayin, giving a short bow. "Come in. Come in, please."

Tiv bowed back clumsily, stepping over the threshold. She really wished people wouldn't bow to her. Yasira had told her it was normal in parts of Riayin, like shaking hands. But in Tiv's home culture, bowing meant submission, and combined with the "Leader" title, it creeped her out.

She'd learned not to protest about the title. Months ago, she and Yasira and their team had started calling each other by code names, in ways that"she initially thought were a joke, but the names had proved meaningful in some weird ways, and more difficult to let go of than expected…