BFS Noms for Zeno Clients…


bfs_logo2011Anne Lyle has been nominated in the Best Newcomer category in the recently announced shortlist for the 2013 British Fantasy Award. Anne receives this nomination in recognition for her excellent debut novel, THE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS, published by Angry RobotTHE ALCHEMIST OF SOULS is the first novel in Anne’s Night’s Masque trilogy, and is followed by THE MERCHANT OF DREAMS and THE PRINCE OF LIES – the latter is due for publication in November 2013.

Also nominated in the same category is E.C. Myers, whom we represent on behalf of our associate agency in New York, JABberwocky. Eugene’s debut novel FAIR COIN also scooped this year’s Andre Norton Award. FAIR COIN and its sequel QUANTUM COIN are published in the US by Pyr Books. UK rights are still available.

The award winners will be announced at the Awards Banquet at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton on Sunday, November 3, 2013.

Huge congratulations to both Anne and Eugene!

Zeno’s Sidewise Award Nominees…


Zeno clients dominate this year’s shortlist for The Sidewise Award for Alternate History, which will be announced at the forthcoming Chicago Worldcon (Chicon 7) in September. Of the seven novels nominated for on the Best Long-Form , we have three familar names…

Good luck to all three of our authors – in some alternative historical universe, you all won!

Ian McDonald’s PLANESRUNNER Sales News…


Hot on the heels of our previous post, we’ve exciting news of another deal with Jo Fletcher Books to announce…

Jo has just acquired UK & British Commonwealth rights to the first three books of  Ian McDonald’s EVERNESS series, this award winning author’s first foray into YA.

The initial title, PLANESRUNNER, will be published this coming summer and has already been released in the US by Pyr to absolutely fantastic reviews (see below) with French rights going to Gallimard Jeunesse. Other translation deals are in the pipeline and we’re also currently fielding *lots* of film interest!

Jo Fletcher says, ‘I first published Ian McDonald way back when, in my early days at Gollancz, and I will never forget waiting breathlessly for the next chapters of CHAGA, and how awed I was by the sheer depth of imagination allied to such a wonderful writing style. So of course I leapt at the opportunity to bring Ian to Jo Fletcher Books, particularly with such a wildly exuberant, exciting and unforgettable series. In fact, I passed PLANESRUNNER around the office and was delighted that my JFB and Quercus colleagues were just as excited as I am. We’re going to have enormous fun publishing this, and can’t wait for a movie deal to bring this to the widest possible audience it so richly deserves.’

Planesrunner is chock-full of awesome. Ian McDonald’s steampunk London blazes on a vast scale with eye-popping towers, gritty streets, and larger-than-life characters who aren’t afraid to fight for each other. The kind of airship-dueling, guns-blazing fantasy that makes me wish I could pop through to the next reality over, join the Airish, and take to the skies‘ — Paolo Bacigalupi

Smashing adventure fiction that spans the multiverse without ever losing its cool or its sense of style. Ian McDonald is one of the greats of science fiction, and his young adult debut is everything you could hope for: romantic, action-packed, wildly imaginative, and full of heart.’ — Cory Doctorow

Athletic, brilliant, and always ahead of the game, Everett is too perfect, but it doesn’t detract from the book’s fun. McDonald writes with scientific and literary sophistication, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Add nonstop action, eccentric characters, and expert universe building, and this first volume of the Everness series is a winner.’ — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Yet More Awards News…


Ian McDonald‘s superb novel THE DERVISH HOUSE has scooped yet another accolade. The author adds this year’s John W. Campbell Award to the BSFA Award and the nominations the novel has received for both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Hugo.

Even though Zeno has only been in business for three years, this is the second time a Zeno client has won this coveted prize… in fact, it’s the second time a client called Ian was won it! (See here) – not a back track record, eh?

Huge congratulations to Ian and to publishers, Pyr and Gollancz, who have done such a wonderful job with the novel. Note the UK mass market edition is due out on July 29th.

News From Planet Eastercon…


Zeno clients triumphed at the BSFA awards, which were held at this year’s Eastercon, at the Hilton Metropole in Birmingham over the Easter weekend.

First up was Aliette de Bodard, who was on hand to collect the award for Best Short Fiction for her story The Shipmaker, which appeared in Interzone issue #231. I managed to snap this pic of her being dwarfed by David Weber, who was on hand the present the award. (The homeless man to the rear is Paul Cornell prior to the removal of his comedy charity beard – for which he raised an impressive amount of money for, ironically, Shelter!)

No sooner had the applause for Aliette died down than our own Ian McDonald took to the stage to accept for the award for Best Novel for THE DERVISH HOUSE (not ‘The Dervish Nights’ as the convention newsletter later reported!), his 2010 novel published by Gollancz in the UK and by Pyr in the US.

A further layer of coolness was added to these wins when we later learned that both Ian and Aliette have been nominated for this year’s Hugo Awards – this news adding to Aliette’s previously reported Nebula nomination for the same story, and Ian’s Arthur C. Clarke Award nomination.

Huge congratulations to both authors.

There were lots of other Zeno authors at Eastercon – I got to meet our latest clients Anne Lyle and David Tallerman, albeit all too briefly, and the mass signing of Angry Robot authors at Waterstones in the centre of Birmingham was almost a mini ‘Zenocon’ of its own. Present were Aliette, Colin Harvey, John Meaney – or was it Thomas Blackthorn? – and, in a rare UK appearance, one Lavie Tidhar (pictured here next to a banner proclaiming his novels in all their steampunky glory.)

Elsewhere at the con, at readings, on panels and if truth must be told, in the bar, one could find Freda Warrington, Susan Boulton, Michael Cobley and last but by no means least Ian R. MacLeod.

I did a panel called ‘Writing 102: Finding an Agent‘, which was well attended and along with Gollancz Editorial Director Gillian Redfearn, Gollancz author Stephen Deas and author Martin Owton, we fielded a number of excellent questions from the audience. Hope those who were there found it helpful.

Locus Online on Ian McDonald…


Over at the LOCUS web site, there’s a fascinating Roundtable discussion going on all about the works of our client Ian McDonald (whom we reported recently had been nominated for this year’s Arthur C. Clarke award) with a number of learned folks taking part – including Ian’s US Editor, Pyr’s Lou Anders, authors Cat Rambo and Rachel Swirsky, editor and translator Fabio Fernandes and our very own web guru, moonlighting as a learned genre commentator Paul Graham Raven.

Roundtable: Ian MacDonald’s Developing Economies Stories

Pats On The Back All Round…


There are all sorts of exciting goings on around here at the moment… We’ve had the staggeringly wonderful news that Ben Aaronovitch‘s novel RIVERS OF LONDON (a.k.a. MIDNIGHT RIOT over in the US, where Del Rey have just published)  will appear at number eight in this week’s Sunday Times Bestseller list for hardcover fiction – a truly amazing achievement for Ben, who, we’re told, is the first début that Gollancz have ever had on this list. Extra big pats for our Ben!

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!

Reviews for THE DERVISH HOUSE…


… are starting to appear and they’re universally glowing.

  • The Wertzone calls it ‘…a fascinating, thought-provoking, challenging and engrossing novel
  • SFrevu draws our attention to ‘…the pure luxurious enjoyment of the prose, the setting, the characters. And let’s not forget about the lavish descriptions of Istanbul itself. We see all of Istanbul’s faces – the once grand city at the crossroads between East and West, the still grand city that is now part of Europe. But we also see the poverty, we can feel the oppressive heat baking down on us, the dust of too many feet on old streets caught in our throats. The city is alive, vibrant, dangerous, beautiful and mysterious with many faces for its inhabitants.
  • Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist says ‘The Dervish House is without a doubt [McDonald’s] best and most accessible science fiction novel to date. And to put it simply, it just blew my mind. Believe me, I did try to find some shortcomings and facets that left a little to be desired. All to no avail, of course. The Dervish House is about as good as it gets, folks. McDonald’s past novels had already set the bar rather high, no question. But this one, at least for me, is as close to perfection as a book can get.
  • And what about this one over at Astro Guyz? ‘…MacDonald is an expert wordsmith and raises the bar in the Sci-Fi genre to a whole new plateau.’
  • And over on the Pyr Blog, a fine quote from Booklist, ‘…McDonald takes the history of Istanbul, both real and imagined, and forges a multi-faceted and fascinating character out of the city itself; then he adds in the experiences of six people whose lives are about to intersect in the most unexpected ways. …McDonald creates a magnificent knot of intrigue, thrills, and daring adventures, with the flair for character and setting that make his tales so satisfying to indulge in.’

And THE DERVISH HOUSE hasn’t even been released yet! Fingers crossed for more rave reviews to come. Watch this space!

the pure luxurious enjoyment of the prose, the setting, the characters. And let’s not forget about the lavish descriptions of Istanbul itself. We see all of Istanbul’s faces – the once grand city at the crossroads between East and West, the still grand city that is now part of Europe. But we also see the poverty, we can feel the oppressive heat baking down on us, the dust of too many feet on old streets caught in our throats. The city is alive, vibrant, dangerous, beautiful and mysterious with many faces for its inhabitants.

Ian McDonald Podcast…


The publication of THE DERVISH HOUSE draws near both here in the UK (Gollancz) and in the US (Pyr) and there is quite a buzz developing around this forthcoming Ian McDonald masterpiece.

Over at the Pyr-o-mania Blog, Lou Anders points folks to the Small World Podcast, where Ian can be heard talking about THE DERVISH HOUSE.  Check it out!

The Dervish House combines Islamic mysticism, political and economic intrigue, a terrorist threat, and a nanotechnology with the potential to transform every human on the planet. The Dervish House takes place in Istanbul in 2027. The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core—the eponymous dervish house, that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller.

Cyberabad Days wins Special Citation at PKD Awards…


Ian MacDonald’s superb short story collection CYBERABAD DAYS has won the judges ‘Special Citation’ at this years Philip K. Dick Awards, effectively placing it as runner up to the winning book, C. L. Anderson’s BITTER ANGEL (Bantam Spectra).

The prize is awarded annually for the most distinguished original science fiction paperback published for the first time during the previous year in the U.S.A and Ian was on hand to receive his citation, which was presented at Norwestcon 2010 in Seattle. (See here for Ian’s short blog post on the subject).

Ian previously won the award in 1992 for KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY and his novel SCISSORS CUT PAPER WRAPS STONE, was nominated in 1995.

CYBERABAD DAYS is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Pyr. Congratulations to all involved.

Cyberabad Days Nominated…


The LOCUS Index to SF Awards proudly lists Ian McDonald as the winner of  “1 Hugo, 1 Sturgeon, 1 Philip K. Dick Award, 1 Locus Award, 4 British SF Awards, 2 Kurd Laáwitz”. Not a bad clutch of gongs by anyone’s standards, eh?

We’re delighted to report that we’ve just got word that Ian’s recent short story collection CYBERADBAD DAYS is one of seven works to be shortlisted for this year’s Philip K. Dick Award,  the prize to be awarded at Norwestcon 33 in April and one which he has, of course, won previously back in 1992 for his novel KING OF MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY.

CYBERABAD DAYS is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Pyr.

All in all, Cyberabad Days is a terrific book and a satisfying return to the world of River of Gods. Ian McDonald is a genius, pure and simple.” — PAT’S FANTASY HOTLIST

McDonald’s India engulfs you with an overwhelming, perfumed, stinky embrace. A hugely impressive collection. Seven nifty, witty stories.” — Dave Langford in SFX