The Endeavour Award committee has chosen City of Ruins, as a finalist for the award.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Endeavour Award, it’s for the best science fiction or fantasy novel written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors, and published in the previous year.

The entire list of nominees is:

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Tor)
City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Pyr)
River Marked by Patricia Briggs (Ace)
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday)
When the Saints by Dave Duncan (Tor)

The winner will be announced at Orycon in November.

Thanks to this year’s judges, Gregory Benford, Lawrence M. Schoen, and Susan Shwartz, and congrats to everyone on the list!

The latest Diving novel officially hit all the stands today. Boneyards has received excellent reviews so far. Library Journal said:

Rusch’s latest addition to her “Diving” series (Diving into the Wreck; City of Ruins) features a strong, capable female heroine and a vividly imagined far-future universe. VERDICT Blending fast-paced action with an exploration of the nature of friendship and the ethics of scientific discoveries, this tale should appeal to Rusch’s readers and fans of space opera.

And RT Book Reviews gave it four stars:

Filled with well-defined characters who confront a variety of ethical and moral dilemmas, Rusch’s third Diving Universe novel is classic space opera, with richly detailed worldbuilding and lots of drama. … Boss and Squishy face difficult questions about loyalty — to friends and to ideals — as the story rockets toward an unexpected conclusion.

You can get Boneyards at your favorite bookstore  (traditional or ebookstore) or order it here. And of course, you can get the marvelous audio book from Audible.com.

And yes, a few reviewers and readers wanted to know if there’s another Diving book coming. Oh, yeah.  You can bet on it.

Asimov’s SF Magazine has just published “Stealth,” a new story in the Diving Universe. This story features Squishy, and reveals some secrets about the stealth tech, as well as bits about Squishy’s past. You can find the magazine in electronic editions on Kindle and Nook, as well as in digest form. For ordering information, go here. If you would like to read an excerpt, you can find it here.