This delay has allowed for some extra special attention to be paid to their cover art and also to that of  their forthcoming reissue of THE STRESS OF HER REGARD – and seen side by side, they make for an impressive and eye-catching bit of author branding, no?

Zeno has a special association with the Campbell Award and if Lavie should win, he’ll actually be the third Zeno author in four years to do so – following in the footsteps of Ian R. MacLeod (2009) and Ian McDonald (2011).

Congratulations and good luck, Lavie!

In translation markets, Hungarian rights for OSAMA we bought by Ad Astra via Gynn Kalman of the Torus Books Agency on behalf of Zeno, and Polish rights went to MAG in a deal negotiated by Patrycja Swiat at ANAW Literary Agency on behalf of Zeno.

Mark’s fantastic steampunk romp THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING-HEELED JACK was a hugely popular winner of the 2011 Philip K. Dick Award, and along with the two follow up titles THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CLOCKWORK MAN and EXPEDITION TO THE MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (published by Pyr in the US and Snow Books here in the UK) has brought this author great acclaim and a huge fan base in a relatively short period of time.

We can now announce three new Burton and Swinburn novels, THE SECRET OF ABDU EL-YEZDI THE MYSTIC, IN THE GRIP OF THE BEAST, and THE MYSTERY OF THE MULTIPLYING MEN, which will run parallel to the first trilogy. These, along with a ‘sword-and-planet’ standalone, A RED SUN ALSO RISES have been acquired at auction in a four book deal by Michael Rowley at Ebury, and will be published on their soon-to-be-name dedicated SF/F list, the first title appearing in 2013.

First up, a slew of titles by Lavie Tidhar – including his PS Publishing novel OSAMA, a work that has been on everyone’s lips of late, not least because it was name-checked in Christopher Priest’s now infamous ranty  blog post as one of the titles (along with WAKE UP AND DREAM by fellow Zeno client, Ian R. MacLeod) that should have made this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award shortlist. We, of course, couldn’t possibly comment on this matter… except to say how absolutely correct Mr Priest is!

Along with OSAMA, Audible will also be releasing Lavie’s entire BOOKMAN trilogy in audio – THE BOOKMAN, CAMERA OBSCURA and the recently published THE GREAT GAME, and the final title in this superb batch is Lavie’s collaboration with fellow Israeli author Nir Yaniv, THE TEL-AVIV DOSSIER, a scarcer Tidhar title, originally published by Chizine Publications in Canada.

Joining Lavie at Audible is another client, Ian McDonald – himself often seen on awards and ‘best of’ shortlists. Audible will be publishing an audio edition of Ian’s THE DERVISH HOUSE, a novel that was nominated for last year’s Clarke and Hugo awards and which won the Campbell, the BSF and the SFSite poll. They will also be publishing BRASYL (also nominated for the Clarke) and RIVER OF GODS (nominated for the Clarke, Hugo and the Tiptree).

World Fantasy Award and Philip K. Dick award winner James P. Blaylock will see his new novel ZEUGLODON (to be published later this year by Subterranean) and also his classic work THE DIGGING LEVIATHAN published in audio.

And finally – very much in the sense of ‘at long last’ -  an author with too many award wins and nominations to list here, William Gibson. To accompany their release of Gibson’s new non-fiction collection DISTRUST THAT PARTICULAR FLAVOUR, Audible have acquired a number of backlist titles – namely NEUROMANCER, THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE, PATTERN RECOGNITION, SPOOK COUNTRY and ZERO HISTORY.

Happy listening!

The Nebulas are are ‘voted on, and presented by, active members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.‘ and have been so since 1965!

The ceremony this year will take place at the Nebula Awards Weekend, May 17th thru 20th in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

You can read Aliette’s nominated story here.

An ingenious and engaging work of dystopian fiction, the eponymous OSIRIS is a retro-futuristic metropolis reminiscent of Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD. The novel tells of an unlikely romance across social divides between a glamorous young socialite grieving for her missing twin and an idealistic activist from the wrong side of the wall.

‘I’m thrilled that Night Shade will be publishing Emma’s hugely exciting début,’ says John Berlyne.  ’Their dedication to bringing forth new talent makes them one of the most exciting publishers out there right now and Emma’s super- stylish and distinctive brand of literary SF is a perfect fit. There’s some comment in the genre at the moment about a dearth of female authors, particularly in SF. The arrival of E.J. Swift on the scene will, I’m quite sure, go some way toward redressing this perceived imbalance.’

Nightshade‘s Jeremy Lassen commented ‘I’m thrilled by E. J. Swift’s unique voice – I believe her trilogy will be well received both commercially and critically by the science fiction community and I’m excited to see her take her place on Night Shade’s science fiction list, alongside authors like Paulo Bacigalupi and Rob Ziegler. Night Shade is committed to publishing important works of 21st century science fiction and E.J. Swift’s Osiris is one of them.‘

OSIRIS will be published in hard cover in summer 2012, with books two and three following in 2013 and 2014 respectively. All other rights are with Zeno.

L’Ombre de la Longue Nuit, translated by Laurent Queyssi, is published by Bragelonne and will compete with ten works by contemporaries such as Dan Simmons, China Mieville and Lauren Beukes and fellow Zeno client Aliette de Bodard.

Aliette’s novel, D’Obsidienne et de Sang, translated by Laurent Philibert-Caillat, is published by Eclipse – having originally been published in English by Angry Robot as SERVANT OF THE UNDERWORLD. And yes,  the multiple ironies involved with a native French author, living in France, writing in English, being translated into French and then nominated in a category for Best Foreign Novel have not escaped our notice! Still cool, though, ain’t it!

The shortlist will be announced by the jury at the end of March and the winners will receive their prizes at a ceremony held during the Etonnants Voyageurs (Amazing Voyagers) festival at Saint-Malo (26-28 May 2012).

Congratulations and good luck to both Mike and Aliette. We’re hoping for a tie between the two of you!