Val Vega makes an epic debut 🚀
It’s almost my birthday here in Australia—a birthday I share, give or take a few time-zones—with an incredible Brooklyn-based sci-fi writer named Ben Fransisco. I first met Ben at Clarion South back in 2007, where be blew me away with a series of delicate, nuanced short stories that found homes in magazines like the Realms of Fantasy, Shimmer, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. Ben’s stories are extraordinary, even more so because they’re rare. Precious glimpses of an extraordinary talent which appear every couple of years, then disappear beneath the weight of Ben’s other life where he worked for high-profile non-profits advocating for LGBTQ rights and immigrant rights. He’s legitimately one of those people who changes the world for the better, which makes it really hard to begrudge his job pulling him away from writing. Hard, but not impossible. I’m an unreasonable man who always wishes his favourite writers would produce more work. Which is why the recent release of this book made me extraordinarily happy. Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth is Ben’s debut novel, a YA adventure written by someone with an unmatched passion and love of science fiction who grew up without seeing themselves represented on the screen or in the books they loved. It’s an extraordinary book, and I’m not the only person to think so. Kirkus gave it a starred review, dubbing it “a captivating, heartfelt tale about family, diplomacy, and finding one’s place in the universe”. It’s been out a little over a month now, and still flying