Multitude

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Release Date 4/28/26

We float to the surface, and we see that there is more to the world than the ocean. We see stars.

Then one day, we hear a song from far away.

It could be nothing, a new dance of energies made by stars muttering to themselves... but it could be everything. We pull tight to your direction in the hope that the universe may gift us a conversation. A banquet.

In Australia, a SETI Technician asks her colleague, "A fake from 44 parsecs?"

In Nevada, a soldier flinches as unidentified craft fly overhead.

In Beirut, a mathematician pets her cat and thinks about language.

We are coming. For the hospice orderly with open arms, the seamstress in her alleyway shop, the lawyer angry at her neighbor's sloppy garden. For you are many, and cannot speak as one.

And yet we see you communicate without words. We see you organize and build.

We see you killing us.

For fans of Ray Nayler, Ann Leckie, and Martin MacInnes, follow the hivemind of cephalopod aliens and explore the power of language, community, and hope. 

This title is distributed through Independent Publishers Group. Retailers, if you are interested in stocking this title, please reach out to IPG at orders@ipgbooks.com.

About the Author

Marie Vibbert is a Hugo- and Nebula nominated author, with short fiction that has appeared over 100 times in top magazines like Nature, Analog, and Clarkesworld, and has been translated into Czech, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was longlisted by the British Science Fiction Award, and her work has been called "everything science fiction should be" by the Oxford Culture Review. She is the editor of the 2026 Triangulation anthology, Bad Romance. She also writes poetry, comics, and computer games. By day, she is a computer programmer in Cleveland, Ohio.

Blurbs

"Multitude shows Marie Vibbert's range as an author of science fiction. It encompasses unique prose and unusual viewpoints in a gripping tale of discovery—of the other and of oneself. It is able to break any expectations readers might have about first contact stories and about human (dis)connection. You won't regret reading this!" —Renan Bernardo, Nebula and Ignyte finalist and author of Disgraced Return of the Kap's Needle

"In Multitude, Marie Vibbert reminds us how very good she is at making the alien feel familiar and accessible, and teaching us something about ourselves in the process. Multitude is both witty and wise. Highly recommend!" —Michael Jan Friedman

"Marie Vibbert is a vibrant new voice in science fiction. Her new novella, Multitude, is a kaleidoscopic look at how the people-world would react to the sudden arrival of alien visitors whose way of thinking is so alien from ours that there seems to be no common ground." —Geoffrey Landis, Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and Sturgeon Award winner

"Vibbert combines the best of first contact: Multitude is trenchant and meditative while also being immediate and visceral. A book for thinkers and feelers alike." —Meg Elison, author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

"Multitude is a refreshing take on first contact, a powerful story of the need for kinship, both with aliens and ourselves." —S. Andrew Swann, author of the Moreau/Confederacy series