Forthcoming Books

Podcast: Lou Anders @ The Dragon Page Cover to Cover

I’m a guest on the Dragon Page Cover to Cover podcast today, episode #389A, talking with Mike & Mike about my two forthcoming anthologies, With Great Power and Swords & Dark Magic. We also talk about a lot of forthcoming Pyr titles, including the much-anticipated Shadows of the Apt series from Adrian Tchaikovsky (which begins with Empire in Black and Gold) as well as the bittersweetness of concluding two series with Kay Kenyon’s Prince of Storms and Mike Resnick’s Starship: Flagship.  I’m a long time listener, but this is my first time on this particular podcast. ‘Twas fun.

Podcast: Lou Anders @ The Dragon Page Cover to Cover Read More »

For Your Viewing Pleasure: Blood of the Mantis

Blood of the Mantisby Adrian Tchaikovsky
Cover Illustration © Jon Sullivan
Jacket Design by Jacqueline Cooke

Driven by the ghosts of the Darakyon, Achaeos has tracked the stolen Shadow Box to the marsh-town of Jerez, but he has only days before the magical box is lost to him forever. Meanwhile, the forces of the Empire are mustering over winter for their great offensive, gathering their soldiers and perfecting their new weapons. Stenwold and his followers have only a short time to gather what allies they can before the Wasp armies march again, conquering everything in their path. If they cannot throw back the Wasps this spring then the imperial black-and-gold flag will fly over every city in the Lowlands before the year’s end. In Jerez begins a fierce struggle over the Shadow Box, as lake creatures, secret police and renegade magicians compete to take possession. If it falls into the hands of the Wasp Emperor, however, then no amount of fighting will suffice to save the world from his relentless ambition.

Coming May 2010

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More Books Than You Can Shade a Stick At

I’ve spoken recently on here and around the net about several acquisitions.  So you may have heard about Clay & Susan Griffith‘s marvelous Vampire Empire trilogy, an alternate history novel which blends pulp adventure with romance and a touch of steampunk. (Think swashbuckling with bloodsuckers across a fleet of flying airships). I’ve hinted at The Buntline Special, Mike Resnick’s first foray into the Weird West (think steampunk OK Corral with zombies. The interior illustrations, by Seamas Gallagher, are already in and can I just say, “wow!”) And you’ve heard about Jasper Kent‘s historical Russian fantasy, Twelve, (and it’s sequel, Thirteen Years Later), a vampire novel that brings the monsters back to their, well, monstrous roots, and does so against Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. We’ve also talked about Mark Hodder’s Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, a brilliant piece of alt history Victoriana that does what a lot of books which use the iconography of steampunk fail to do, and that is think out its whole world as an amazing exercise in uchronia where every set piece has been built up as a naturally-occurring result of the one before, all the way back to the moment of change between their world and ours. And, of course, you may have seen on Twitter where we are gearing up to publish Legends of the Raven, the second “Raven” trilogy from James Barclay.

Well, those weren’t the only titles I was busy acquiring. I can now tell you about:

Pierre Pavel’s The Cardinal’s Blades, a fantastic bit of swashbuckling historical fantasy slash swords and sorcery that I am head over heels about.

Welcome to seventeenth century Paris, where intrigue, duels and spies are rife and Cardinal Richelieu’s men may be prevailed upon to risk life and limb in the name of France at a moment’s notice. And with war on the horizon, the defense of the nation has never been more pressing.

Danger is rising from the south—an insidious plot which could end with a huge dragon- shaped shadow falling over France. A shadow cast by dragons quite unlike the pet dragonets which roam the cities like stray cats, or the tame wyverns men ride like horses, high over the Parisian rooftops. These dragons and their descendants are ancient, terrible and powerful… and their plans contain little room for the lives or freedom of men.

 Cardinal Richelieu has nowhere else to turn; Captain La Fargue and his elite group of men, the Cardinal’s Blades, must turn the tide. They must hold the deadly Black Claw cult at bay, root out traitors to the crown, rescue prisoners, and fulfill their mission for the Cardinal, for their country, but above all for themselves.

 It’s death or victory. And the victory has never been less certain.

The Author, Pierre Pevel, is one of the foremost writers of French fantasy today. The author of seven novels, he was awarded the GRAND PRIX DE L’IMAGINAIRE in 2002 and the PRIX IMAGINALES in 2005, both for best novel. (The image here is from the UK edition, but we’ve already contracted with our friend and fantastic artist Jon Sullivan to use the same image. Why tamper with perfection?)

And building on his success with The Quiet War (and the expected success of the forthcoming sequel Gardens of the Sun), we’ve gone back and picked up Paul McAuley’s absolutely fabulous Cowboy Angels, because, dammit, American’s need to read this one too:

America, 1984 – not our version of America, but an America that calls itself the Real, an America in which the invention of Turing Gates has allowed it access to sheaves of alternate histories. For ten years, in the name of democracy, the Real has been waging clandestine wars and fomenting revolution, freeing versions of America from communist or fascist rule, and extending its influence across a wide variety of alternate realities. But the human and political costs have proven too high, and new President Jimmy Carter has called an end to war, and is bringing troops and secret agents home. Adam Stone is called out of retirement when his former comrade, Tom Waverly, begins to murder different versions of the same person, mathematician Eileen Barrie. Aided by Waverly’s daughter, Linda, Adam hunts for his old friend across different sheaves, but when they finally catch up with Waverly, they discover that they have stumbled into the middle of an audacious conspiracy that plans to exploit a new property of the Turing Gates: it will change not only the history of the Real, but that of every other sheaf, including our own. Cowboy Angels combines the high-octane action and convoluted plots of the TV series 24 in a satirical, multi-layered alternate reality thriller.

(As we speak, Sparth is at work on the cover.)

Now if you have really been paying attention, you may already know that we have signed debut author Sam Sykes‘s fantasy trilogy, The Aeon’s Gate, which begins in 2010 with Tome of the Undergates. The forthcoming UK edition is already generating huge buzz (but you’ll wait for our edition, yes?) The book is tremendous, and sits tonally very nicely between Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch. It’s 180,000 words of action and great character banter that hits hard from chapter one and doesn’t let up. Here’s the description:

Lenk can barely keep control of his mismatched adventurer band at the best of times (Gariath the dragon man sees humans as little more than prey, Kataria the Shict despises most humans, and the humans in the band are little better). When they’re not insulting each other’s religions they’re arguing about pay and conditions.

So when the ship they are traveling on is attacked by pirates things don’t go very well. They go a whole lot worse when an invincible demon joins the fray. The demon steals the Tome of the Undergates – a manuscript that contains all you need to open the undergates. And whichever god you believe in you don’t want the undergates open. On the other side are countless more invincible demons, the manifestation of all the evil of the gods, and they want out.

Full of razor-sharp wit, characters who leap off the page (and into trouble) and plunging the reader into a vivid world of adventure this is a fantasy that kicks off a series that could dominate the second decade of the century.

Finally, we’ve just shook hands yesterday afternoon with Ari Marmell on his brilliant fantasy novel, The Goblin Corps, a very dark and very humorous novel where the bad guys are the protagonists. The novel follows a squad of goblin soldiers–an orc, a troll, a kobold, etc.–during what might be the final days of an evil empire facing attack from the combined forces of humanity and the other “good” races. I cannot begin to communicate how excited I am by it. But those looking for a taste of Ari’s writing can check out The Conqueror’s Shadow, coming this February 2010 from Bantam Spectra. The Library Journal describes it thusly: “Superior storytelling and deft dialog make this a top-notch choice for fans of Glen Cook and James Barclay.” Works by me.

So yes, I’ve been busy.

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For Your Viewing Pleasure: Gardens of the Sun

Cover Illustration © Sparth
Design by Jacqueline Cooke

The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark. Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate in the systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth’s forces loot their cities, settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the ‘Outer problem’. But Earth’s victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomise the strange gardens abandoned in place by Avernus, the Outers’ greatest genius, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn’t as easy as he thought. And in Greater Brazil, the Outers’ democratic traditions have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them. After a conflict fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, the future is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war – especially the victors. 

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PRESS RELEASE –TWO-BOOK US RIGHTS DEAL FOR BRITISH NOVELIST


From the press release:

Helen Edwards, Rights Director at Transworld UK, has sold US rights in two historical vampire novels by UK novelist Jasper Kent for a good five-figure sum in US dollars.

World rights in the novels, which open with Jasper’s debut TWELVE, published very successfully in the UK by Transworld in January 2009 (it is the second-highest-selling trade paperback debut novel right across UK publishing in 2009), were acquired by Simon Taylor from John Jarrold in 2008. The sequel, THIRTEEN YEARS LATER, will appear in the UK in March 2010.

‘I’m thrilled to be welcoming Jasper Kent into the Pyr fold,’ says editorial director Lou Anders. ‘TWELVE is a magnificent blend of a historical novel and a dark fantasy novel, that could appeal equally to readers both in and out of genre. Jasper is a skilled storyteller, whose compelling prose had me hooked from his opening chapter. The book is “un-put-downable,” and I love that he has brought back a real sense of threat and danger to the classic monsters, something that has been lacking with too many vampires lately. I cannot wait to spring this on US readers.’

‘Jasper and I are delighted with this deal, and looking forward to working with Lou and his colleagues,’ said John Jarrold. ‘Pyr is a terrific company, who publish many of my favourite authors, and Lou’s enthusiasm has to be seen to be believed!’

Contact Helen Edwards or John Jarrold for further information:

Helen Edwards: e-mail: H.Edwards@transworld-publishers.co.uk phone: 020 8579 3652

John Jarrold: e-mail: j.jarrold@btinternet.com phone: 01522 510544.

29th October 2009

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Introducing Burton & Swinburne

I’m thrilled to report that I’ve just acquired a fantastic new steampunk tale, Mark Hodder’s Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, the first of a planned new series. It’s also the first Victorian-set steampunk I’ve acquired, (as opposed to Weird West, 1920s era America, or a secondary-world fantasy settings). I have been looking for a Victorian novel that would stand out from the crowd, and I was immediately drawn to the way in which Mark justified the steampunk elements of his uchronia, which all descend from a certain key change in our own history (rather than simply being used as set dressing). The worldbuilding is exceptionally well thought out, and I can’t wait to, pardon the pun, spring it on the US in fall 2010 (or thereabouts; it’s not scheduled yet). Here’s the book description:

It is 1861, and the British Empire is in the grip of conflicting forces. Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose restrictive and unjust laws and flood the country with propaganda demanding a society based on beauty and creativity; while The Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, sexuality, drugs and anarchy.

Returning from his failed expedition to find the source of the Nile, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton finds himself sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, employs him as “King’s Spy.” His first mission: to investigate the sexual assaults committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack; to find out why chimney sweeps are being kidnapped by half-man, half-dog creatures; and to discover the whereabouts of his badly injured ex-friend (and new enemy), John Hanning Speke.

Accompanied by the diminutive and pain-loving poet, Algernon Swinburne, Burton’s investigations lead him back to one of the defining events of the age: the brutal assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840; and the terrifying possibility that the world he inhabits shouldn’t exist at all!

Mark Hodder is the creator and caretaker of the BLAKIANA website (www.sextonblake.co.uk), which he designed to celebrate and revive Sexton Blake, the most written about detective in English publishing history (thought to be the second most written about character in the English language). It was on this website that he cut his teeth as a writer of fiction; producing the first new Sexton Blake tales to be written for forty years. A former BBC writer, editor and web producer, Mark has worked in all the new and traditional medias and was based in London for most of his working life until 2008, when he relocated to Valencia in Spain to de-stress, teach the English language, and write novels. He has a degree in Cultural Studies and loves history, delusions, gadgets, cult TV, Tom Waits, and assorted oddities.

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For Your Viewing Pleasure: The Dervish House

The Dervish House© Ian McDonald
Cover Illustration © Stephan Martiniere
Design by Jacqueline Cooke
In the sleepy Istanbul district of Eskiköy stands the former whirling dervish house of Adem Dede. Over the space of five days of an Istanbul heatwave, six lives weave a story of corporate wheeling and dealing, Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, ancient Ottoman mysteries, a terrifying new terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet.

Coming July 2010

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Something To Look Forward To…

From here to Eternity, or just August 2010

October 2009:
Joel Shepherd, Sasha: A Trial of Blood & Steel, Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

James Enge, A Crooked Way, Trade Paperback, Swords & Sorcery

James Barclay, Noonshade (Chronicles of the Raven 2) Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

November 2009:
Mark Chadbourn, The Silver Skull (Swords of Albion), Trade Paperback, Historical Fantasy/Secret History

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Diving into the Wreck, Trade Paperback, Space Opera

James Barclay, Nightchild (Chronicles of the Raven 3), Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

December 2009:
Mike Resnick, Starship: Flagship (Book 5), Hardcover, Military SF

January 2010:
Kay Kenyon, City Without End (The Entire and the Rose 3), Trade Paperback after Hardcover, Sci-fantasy, Epic SF

Kay Kenyon, Prince of Storms (The Entire and the Rose 4), Hardcover, Sci-fantasy, Epic SF

February 2010:
David Louis Edelman, Geosynchron (Jump 225 Vol III), Trade Paperback, SF

March 2010:
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt 1), Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

Joel Shepherd, Petrodor: A Trial of Blood & Steel II, Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

Paul McAuley, Gardens of the Sun, Trade Paperback, Space Opera

April 2010:
George Mann, Ghosts of Manhattan, Trade Paperback, 1920s Steampunk Superhero

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Dragonfly Falling (Shadows of the Apt 2), Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

Ian McDonald, Ares Express, Trade Paperback, SF

May 2010:
Mark Chadbourn, The Devil in Green (Dark Age Book 1), Trade Paperback, Urban/Contemporary Fantasy

Adrian Tchaikovsky, Blood of the Mantis (Shadows of the Apt 3), Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

June 2010:
Mark Chadbourn, The Queen of Sinister (Dark Age Book 2), Trade Paperback, Urban/Contemporary Fantasy

Matthew Sturges, The Office of Shadow, Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

Jon Sprunk, Shadow’s Son, Trade Paperback, Swords & Sorcery

July 2010:
Mark Chadbourn, The Hounds of Avalon (Dark Age Book 3), Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

Ian McDonald, The Dervish House, Hardcover, SF

August 2010:
Kay Kenyon, Prince of Storms (The Entire and the Rose 4) Trade Paperback after Hardcover, Sci-fantasy, Epic SF

Tom Lloyd, The Ragged Man, (The Twilight Reign Book 4), Trade Paperback, Epic Fantasy

Note: The Spring-Summer 2010 season (which begins March 2010) is already up at Amazon, and should be available for preorders at BooksAMillion, Borders, B&N, and your favorite independent bookstore too as soon as the information filters on through.

Something To Look Forward To… Read More »

For Your Viewing Pleasure: The Silver Skull

Cover Illustration © Chris McGrath
Design by Jacqueline Cooke

A devilish plot to assassinate the queen, a cold war enemy hell-bent
on destroying the nation, incredible gadgets, a race against time
around the world to stop the ultimate doomsday device…
and Elizabethan England’s greatest spy!

Meet Will Swyfte—adventurer, swordsman, rake, swashbuckler, wit, scholar and the greatest of Walsingham’s new band of spies. His exploits against the forces of Philip of Spain have made him a national hero, lauded from Carlisle to Kent. Yet his associates can barely disguise their incredulity—what is the point of a spy whose face and name is known across Europe? ??But Swyfte’s public image is a carefully-crafted façade to give the people of England something to believe in, and to allow them to sleep peacefully at night. It deflects attention from his real work—and the true reason why Walsingham’s spy network was established. ??A Cold War seethes, and England remains under a state of threat. The forces of Faerie have preyed on humanity for millennia. Responsible for our myths and legends, of gods and fairies, dragons, griffins, devils, imps and every other supernatural menace that has haunted our dreams, this power in the darkness has seen humans as playthings to be tormented, hunted or eradicated. But now England is fighting back! ??Magical defences have been put in place by the Queen’s sorcerer Dr. John Dee, who is also a senior member of Walsingham’s secret service and provides many of the bizarre gadgets utilised by the spies. Finally there is a balance of power. But the Cold War is threatening to turn hot at any moment… ??Will now plays a constant game of deceit and death, holding back the Enemy’s repeated incursions, dealing in a shadowy world of plots and counter-plots, deceptions, secrets, murder, where no one… and no thing… is quite what it seems.

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The World Falls Under His Shadow

Next summer will see the release of debut author Jon Sprunk’s new fantasy, Shadow’s Son, the first in a trilogy that continues with Shadow’s Lure and Shadow’s Master. I’m getting close to being able to debut the awesome cover from Michael Komarck (our first time working with him and all I can say is, “Wow”.) Meanwhile, Shadow’s Son is still a year out and already making a splash. Jon has already sold French rights to the entire trilogy to Bragelonne, and right on its heels, UK rights to Gollancz. Obviously, this suggests good things ahead for this author. Here’s just a quick tease about the novel:

In the holy city of Othir , treachery and corruption lurk at the end of every street, just the place for a freelance assassin with no loyalties and few scruples.

Oh, and Jon will be attending the forthcoming World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, and he won’t know anyone, so seek him out if you are going to be there. I’m sure if you tell him “Lou promised you would buy me a beer,” he’d be happy to.

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