Ode to the Half-Broken Hardcover by Suzanne Palmer

Product Details

• Publisher: DAW (2026-05-26)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 416 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780756419585
• Item Weight: 493.29 grams
• Dimensions: 21.69 x 14.63 x 3.33 cm

"A refreshing ray of hope in the darkness." —Publishers Weekly

As seen on LitHub's "May’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books"

In the abandoned New York Botanical Gardens, forty years after the world nearly ended, a worn-out robot is attacked, and realizes old evils are stirring

Wrestling with themes of loneliness, connection, and purpose, this hope-punk sci-fi is for fans of Becky Chambers’s Monk & Robot duology—featuring a cyborg dog!

Thirty years ago the world nearly ended. 

Be was there, but the old robot has since settled into a life of isolation in the abandoned New York Botanical Gardens, determined to forget their role in that cataclysmic conflict. 

But then they wake up in a bathtub. And their leg is missing. And the only one to ask for help is a very chatty cyborg dog. Be may want to forget the world, but it seems the world hasn’t forgotten them. 

Forced out of solitude, Be embarks on a quest to reclaim their leg, accompanied by that talkative (read: smart-ass) dog and a human mechanic with nightmares of her own. Their motley crew soon discovers that recovery from the war is uneven and faltering, and Be begins to suspect a malicious hand trying to rekindle old conflicts. In order to stop them, Be needs to come to terms with both their own past and who they have become. Being left alone is no longer an option, and peace may be impossible. 

A tale of resilience and hope, this is an ode to those struggling to become whole in a world half-broken.

About the Author

Suzanne Palmer has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award and the Eugie Foster Award. Her short fiction has won reader's awards for Asimov's, Analog, and Interzone magazines, and was listedin Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies, including the 35th Annual Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois and volumes two and three of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, edited by Neil Clarke.