E.J. Swift is the talented author of OSIRIS and the upcoming CATAVEIRO, the first two books in the Osiris Project science fiction trilogy. Last year, Emma’s short story SAGA’S CHILDREN was included in THE LOWEST HEAVEN anthology, published by Jurassic London. The story has now been made available in its entirety on Pornokitsch.
OSIRIS is out now in the UK and US, and CATAVEIRO follows later this year. They are both published by Del Rey UK and Night Shade Books (US). Here is the synopsis for OSIRIS…
Nobody leaves Osiris.
Adelaide Rechnov – Wealthy socialite and granddaughter of the Architect, she spends her time in pointless luxury, rebelling against her family in a series of jaded social extravagances and scandals until her twin brother disappears in mysterious circumstances.
Vikram Bai – He lives in the Western Quarter, home to the poor descendants of storm refugees and effectively quarantined from the wealthy elite. His people live with cold and starvation, but the coming brutal winter promises civil unrest, and a return to the riots of previous years.
As tensions rise in the city, can Adelaide and Vikram bridge the divide at the heart of Osiris before conspiracies bring them to the edge of disaster?
The US & UK Covers for OSIRIS and the UK Cover for CATAVEIRO
CAMERA OBSCURA, the new novel by Lavie Tidhar is published next month by Angry Robot, and the author, rumoured by some to be nothing more than a shadowy internet presence, makes a rare visit to the UK to promote the release and will be attending – in person! – this year’s Eastercon in Birmingham, where he will appear on a number of panels. Whilst he’s in town, Lavie will be doing a number of events and signings, and so if you want to meet the man that LOCUS call an ’emerging master’, citing five of his projects on their 2010 Recommended Reading List ( Count them, folks! No other author had more listings!), here’s where you’ll find him…
Sunday 17th April : 12.00pm – Waterstones, The Bentalls Centre, 9 Wood Street, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey
Saturday 23rd April : 12.30pm – Waterstone’s, 24-26 High Street, Birmingham. This is a group signing featuring Angry Robot authors, so if you turn up, besides Lavie, you’re likely to also run into (and get books signed by) other Zeno clients, Aliette de Bodard, Thomas Blackthorne (aka John Meaney) and Matt Hughes. John B will be there too – but won’t of course, be signing books!
And if you want to get a taste of Lavie’s new book, here’s a neat bit of code courtesy of the folks at Angry Robot…
Elizabeth Moon‘s brand new new novel, KINGS OF THE NORTH, the second volume in her new Paladin’s Legacy series is to be published by Orbit here in the UK later this month.
If you’re looking to send us a fantasy novel at some point, you could do worse than look to Elizabeth’s work as an fine example of what the market is looking for right now – and courtesy of Orbit – a publisher always on the look-out for commercial fantasy, here’s some free sample chapters from the novel to help you do just that.
Elizabeth has also just contributed a guest piece to the Orbit Blog entitled ‘A Few Favourite Fantasy Dragons‘ which is well worth a look. (Hint: Dragons are hot right now – no pun intended … well, okay, a bit intended!)
King Kieri’s realm has been destabilised by political wrangling and his court is blind to the dangers – until an assassination attempt on their king. And when this backfires, Kieri’s enemies start planning an invasion using dragonfire, a force unseen for hundreds of years. In King Mikeli’s adjoining kingdom, his crown is threatened by a bandit prince. Alured the Black claims his lineage gives him dominion over all the lands. His ambition is boundless, his methods are ruthless and he will not be swayed from his goal, whether or not it undermines a region already on the brink of war. Dark mages also watch for weakness and hunger for their own lost powers. The Kings of the North must plan wisely, as disaster is a sword’s breadth away.
Elizabeth Moon: A long excerpt fromSHEEPFARMER’S DAUGHTER (the prologue and first two chapters, no less!) the first in the DEED OF PAKSENARRION series, is available at the Orbit web site, promoting their recently released omnibus edition (see this previous post).
I finally got round to adding a Zeno author page for Matthew Hughes (sorry it took so long, Matt!), but my timing is fortuitous, for I bring news of a wondrous Matthew Hughes related give-away – one which I am seriously wanting to win all for myself!
To celebrate the release of the third of Night Shade Books‘ Hengis Hapthorn novels, HESPIRA, the publisher are giving away two complete sets of these books in a competition over at Fantasy Book Critic. There are other wonderful items in the prize fund too – not least *slipcased editions* of Subterranean‘s SONGS OF A DYING EARTH (signed by all the contributors) in which Matt has a story, plus TEMPLATE and POSTSCRIPTS 15 both published by PS Publishing (again, these are signed copies).
And hot on the heels of the cover art (see below), here’s an amazing trailer that Aliette has put together for her forthcoming novel Servant of the Underworld. Is there no end to this woman’s talents?
And the My Favorite Books blog is running an exlusive excerpt from Servant of the Underworld – check it out if you want to wet your appetite for this superb historical fantasy thriller, which will be published January 7th by Angry Robot.
Here’s a link to a really excellent web site dedicated to Iain Sinclair and his work. Iain has given his blessing to this instructive online resource which is run and maintained by Sinclair fan extraordinaire, Benedetto.
If you want up-to-date information on Iain’s public engagements, this is the place to visit…
Reviews are starting to come in for Iain Sinclair’s new book Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire and we’ll be posting news of them here as they come in. For starters, here’s a four star write-up from today’s London Metro paper.
Check our previous post for details of specific Hackney related events that are coming up and don’t forget to listen to BBC Radio 4 next week, when Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire will be being featured as Book of the Week.
The Observer carried a wonderful interview with author Iain Sinclair on February 8th , 2009. ‘The brilliant chronicler of uncharted, often unloved, parts of Britain has stayed close to home for his latest epic – a bittersweet love letter to the London borough of Hackney. He takes Rachel Cooke for a stroll round his patch – no ordinary walk, as the visionary author beautifully evokes the area’s rich history while reflecting on his own memories of the urban landscape.‘ The piece is available here online.
And if all this coverage is wetting your appetite for the book (and how can it not?) the publisher Hamish Hamilton has made an except of the book’s opening chapter available online. Click this link for the pdf.
“A reader recently emailed me, mentioning how intrigued he was at finding a fantasy series in which gunpowder and eighteenth century weaponry can be found alongside dragons and daemons. I really appreciated that comment! Because in writing this series I wanted to evoke an Age of Reason not unlike our own and confront the enlightened thinkers and scientists with the raw forces of an ancient and powerful magic that they can neither explain away nor begin to understand.” Follow this link to read more…
The February 09 issue of Apex Magazine leads with a brand new Lavie Tidhar story entitled Dark Planet. Follow this link to read it free online. Also in this issue is the latest of Lavie’s entertaining essays in his Confessions of a Book Junkie series – be sure to check out the back issues for more of these if you missed them first time around.
E.J. Swift is the talented author of OSIRIS and the upcoming CATAVEIRO, the first two books in the Osiris Project science fiction trilogy. Last year, Emma’s short story SAGA’S CHILDREN was included in THE LOWEST HEAVEN anthology, published by Jurassic London. The story has now been made available in its entirety on Pornokitsch.
Reviews are coming in now for 
“A reader recently emailed me, mentioning how intrigued he was at finding a fantasy series in which gunpowder and eighteenth century weaponry can be found alongside dragons and daemons. I really appreciated that comment! Because in writing this series I wanted to evoke an Age of Reason not unlike our own and confront the enlightened thinkers and scientists with the raw forces of an ancient and powerful magic that they can neither explain away nor begin to understand.” 