That notwithstanding, we’ve been beavering away and are delighted to announce a few deals that we’ve recently concluded…

• James P. Blaylock‘s first novel length Steampunk story in twenty years has sold to Titan in a world English deal negotiated by John Berlyne. THE AYLESFORD SKULL, which features further  gaslight adventures of Langdon St. Ives and his nemesis Ignatio Narbondo will be published by Titan late next year or early 2013. A limited edition is also planned. In addition to THE AYLESFORD SKULL, Titan will also be re-issueing two Blaylock steampunk classics, the 1988 Philip K Dick Award winning HOMUNCULUS and also LORD KELVIN’S MACHINE. Audio rights for all three novels went to Stacy Patton Anderson at Audible.
• Titan have also acquired world English rights (excluding India) to TURBULENCE and an UNTITLED sequel by Samit Basu. Publication is set for Feb 2012.
• Audible will release an audiobook edition of Ian R. MacLeod‘s WAKE UP AND DREAM along with two earlier MacLeod novels THE SUMMER ISLES and THE GREAT WHEEL.
• Audible also picked up audio rights to the third novel in Michael Cobley‘s HUMANITY’S FIRE series, THE ASCENDANT STARS. German rights for this title went to Heyne via Thomas Schluck.
• Sheila Gilbert at DAW Books has acquired World English rights to  Kari Sperring‘s THE GRASS KING’S CONCUBINE and an UNTITLED sequel in a nice  deal negotiated by John Parker.
• German rights to Freda Warrington’s ELFLAND sold to Carl Ueberreuter Verlag GMBH via Paul & Peter Fritz AG.
• French rights to the first three novels in Ben Aaronovitch‘s best selling RIVERS OF LONDON series went to J’ai lu via Lora Fountain. Orion have sold rights to the series in Poland, Hungary and Italy.
• Also via Lora Fountain, French rights to Ian McDonald‘s PLANESRUNNER sold to Gallimard Jeunesse.
• The Library of America will publish the Algis Budrys‘ classic SF work WHO? as part of a reissue series to be edited by Gary K. Wolfe.
• UK / British Commonwealth rights to a new graphic novel series by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden entitled CEMETERY GIRL went to Jo Fletcher at Jo Fletcher Books. Jo has also acquired three anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni P. Kelner.
• US rights to Iain Sinclair‘s GHOST MILK and AMERICAN SMOKE went to Mitzi Angel at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
• UK /British  Commonwealth rights to two brand new titles in Elizabeth Moon‘s PALADIN’S LEGACY series sold to Orbit.

And there are plenty more things in the pipeline! More in due course.

No less vigorous pattage for Mister Ian McDonald, whose novel THE DERVISH HOUSE (also a Gollancz title – and Pyr in the States) has been nominated for the 2010 BSFA award for best novel. The shortlist is impressive, but Ian is widely regarded as a favourite. We’d be very surprised if this was only shortlist this wonderful novel makes this year. Also on the shortlist for the best short fiction is our own Aliette de Bodard, for her story The Shipmaker, which appeared in issue #231 of Interzone – congrats to both authors.

THE DERVISH HOUSE has also made this year’s LOCUS Recommended Reading List, which serves as a guide for the very best material our field has to offer. Here are the Zeno authors whose work has been listed…

Novels, Science Ficition – THE DERVISH HOUSE by Ian McDonald
Novels, Fantasy – THE DESERT SPEAR by Peter V Brett
Novels, Fantasy – HESPIRA by Matthew Hughes
First Novels – THE BOOKMAN by Lavie Tidhar
Collections – JOURNEYS by Ian MacLeod
Novellas – CLOUD PERMUTATIONS by Lavie Tidhar
Novellettes -BUTTERFLY AND THE BLIGHT AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD by Lavie Tidhar (Daily Science Fiction 9/3/10)
Short Stories – SECOND JOURNEY OF THE MAGUS by Ian R. MacLeod (Subterranean Winter ’10)
Short Stories – TONIGHT WE FLY by Ian McDonald (Masked)
Short Stories – THE NIGHT TRAIN by Lavie Tidhar (Strange Horizons 6/14/10)
Short Stories -THE SPONTANEOUS KNOTTING OF AN AGITATED STRING by Lavie Tidhar (Fantasy 5/17/10)

… a pretty good haul by anyone’s standards! More pats to all those who made the list, but particularly to Lavie Tidhar who scored a quite remarkable FIVE mentions!

Ben will be appearing on The Radio 2 Book Club segment of the Simon Mayo Show on Monday 24th January, discussing RIVERS OF LONDON and generally being amusing, witty and wry. The BBC web site is offering the first chapter online, so follow that link above. UK residents who miss the broadcast can catch up with it on the BBC iPlayer.

Ben signing at London’s Forbidden Planet store on Jan 15th, 2011

To celebrate the launch of Ben’s new series, he’ll be signing copies at London’s flagship Forbidden Planet store on January 15th, 2011 between 1pm and 2pm, so be sure to come along and grab a copy. Further details can be found here.

‘RIVERS OF LONDON manages to be fresh and original and a wonderful read. I loved it.’ — Charlaine Harris

‘A consummate story of real policing in a vividly real world intersecting the decidedly unreal to marvellous effect. Filled with detail and imagination, the quality of this achievement stands out, making Aaronovitch a name to watch.’ — Peter F. Hamilton

• Angry Robot have revealed this gorgeous David Frankland cover for Lavie Tidhar’s forthcoming novel, CAMERA OBSCURA, the follow-up to his Steampunk romp, THE BOOKMAN, due for release next May, and about which they say ‘… In this one we meet Milady de Winter, investigating some murders in, of all places, the Rue Morgue. (Why yes, that does sound strangely familiar…) As she dives deeper into Parisian society, it seems everyone knows who did it except her… and the real question is not who, but why? Her search for answers will take her to the far side of the world, and beyond.’
• And THE BOOKMAN has just sold to Rani Graff at Graff Publishing in Israel.
• Lavie’s CLOUD PERMUTATIONS, published by PS Publishing has been receiving some nice coverage and we’ve just done a deal with Peter Crowther at PS for a new Tidhar collection – more news on this anon.
• And whilst we’re patting him on the back, congrats to Lavie for being winning the Last Drink Bird Head award for International Activism… follow that link to find out more.

And we’ve a couple of other Angry Robot covers to show off here – on the left is Colin Harvey‘s DAMAGE TIME, a seat of the pants, SF thriller from the author of WINTER’S SONG. This new one by Colin has just been released by AR and in a recent Guardian review was described thus by Eric Brown ‘The strength of the novel lies not only in the depiction of a detailed future of hardship and privation, but in the expert characterisation of [protagonist] Shah: a lone figure whose origins leave him open to prejudice within the police department, and whose problematic relationship with an intersexual courtesan reveals his own deep-seated prejudices.‘

And to the right, we’ve the cover for POINT by Thomas Blackthorn (a.k.a John Meaney), not due out until Feb 2011 and which looks rather splendid when placed next to EDGE, the first Blackthorn novel. Swapping identities and publishers for a moment, John reports he has just completed the second Ragnarok novel for Simon Spanton at Gollancz… more on that in due course.

• We’ve some delivery news too… Tim Powers handed in new novel HIDE ME AMONGST THE GRAVES (working title) to Nic Cheetham at Corvus, and Ian Sinclair delivered GHOST MILK to Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton.
• And in deal news, we’ve been very busy indeed – highlights  include recently cemented contracts for Michael Cobley, whose Humanity’s Fire books will be released by Audible next year; for Peter V. Brett (in a major deal with Voyager); for Charlaine Harris (more audio) ; numerous foreign sales of Sir Roger Penrose‘s CYCLES OF TIME; for Ian McDonald (foreign language sales); for Justina Robson (a brand new story collection forthcoming from Australian publisher Ticonderoga); a film option for Andrew Hodges;  and an exciting top secret project for Ben Aaronovitch which we’ll be announcing in due course; and one or two other things too.

There’s a very nice Diana Gabaldon quote on the front and a very nice Charliane Harris quote on the back and check out the cover copy below. RIVERS OF LONDON will be published next January by Gollancz.

“My name is Peter Grant and until recently I was just a probationary constable  in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (and as the Filth to everybody else). Now I’m a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddesses of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden.

But there’s something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair. It’s falling to me to bring order out of the chaos – or die trying.“

MIDNIGHT RIOT will be published by Del Rey in the US and in the UK by Gollancz under the title RIVERS OF LONDON. Both releases are scheduled for  late January 2011 and will be followed shortly thereafter by Book Two, MOON OVER SOHO.

The deal includes MOON OVER SOHO which Ben has just delivered to us here at Zeno towers and also to his editors, Betsy Mitchell over at Del Rey and Jo Fletcher at Gollancz. Both publishers are looking to publish book one early next year and so we hope to have some cover art to show you soon!

‘I’m delighted to have acquired Ben’s RIVERS OF LONDON series: CSI London meets The Sweeney – Urban Fantasy style!‘ says Jo Fletcher. ‘I love this series of fast-moving, plot-driven urban fantasy adventures, and the combination of rookie beat copper-turned-apprentice-wizard Peter Grant and his boss, the debonair Inspector Nightingale, aka the last wizard in England, is gripping stuff. The books are real page-turners, and enormous fun – I shall never look on the River Lea quite the same way again. Ben’s already got a devoted audience with his Doctor Who episodes; I am quite sure he’ll be winning a whole new audience with this series.‘

For more on Ben Aaronovitch, see this previous posting and visit his author page on the Zeno Web Site.

RIVERS OF LONDON is a fresh and exciting London-based Urban Fantasy focusing on 20-something police constable Peter Grant who finds himself seconded – much to his surprise! – to a secret and arcane branch of the Met specialising in crimes of a supernatural nature, and thus apprenticed to the last wizard in Britain.

“Ben Aaronovitch is a new Del Rey darling,” Mitchell said. “Both male and female readers here were delighted by the character of Peter Grant and Ben’s new take on the urban paranormal genre.”

For more on Ben Aaronovitch, see this previous posting and visit his author page on the Zeno Web Site.