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Three more classic Algis Budrys novels out now in Germany!

Posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2016

Heyne has published three more classic Algis Budrys novels in Germany in eBook format. Here are the details…

First up is ZWISCHEN ZWEI WELTEN, first published as the Hugo Award-nominated WHO? in 1958…

Der Mann aus Metall

Der amerikanische Astrophysiker Lucas Martino arbeitet irgendwo in Europa an einem militärischen Geheimprojekt der Alliierten Nationen. Sein Labor liegt in der Nähe jener Grenze, die den Westen vom Osten trennt. Als eines seiner Experimente schiefgeht und es zu einer Explosion kommt, sind die Rettungskräfte des Ostens als erste zur Stelle. Martino wird monatelang ärztlich behandelt – im anderen Teil der Welt. Als man ihn schließlich aus dem Krankenhaus entlässt und in den Westen zurückbringt, ist er nicht mehr wiederzuerkennen: Dort, wo einst sein Kopf war, befindet sich eine metallische Kugel, und sein linker Arm ist ein mechanisches Wunderwerk. Die amerikanische Spionageabwehr reagiert misstrauisch. Kann es einen unanfechtbaren Beweis dafür geben, dass Martino wirklich Martino ist?

Next up, MICHAELMAS (published in English with the same title, in 1977)…

Die Macht der Information

Lauent Michaelmas ist der mächtigste Mann der Welt, auch wenn er seine Macht nicht offen ausübt. Der Fernsehkommentator liefert stets perfekt recherchierte Berichte ab, die dem weltweiten Medienverbund die höchsten Einschaltquoten einbringen. Ein negativer Kommentar von ihm kann Milliardenprojekte ins Wanken bringen, ein positiver Beitrag Menschen über Nacht berühmt machen. Dass seine Berichte immer perfekt recherchiert sind, besorgt sein Computer Domino. Wo auch immer eine elektrische Leitung hinführt, Domino zapft sie für den Moderator an – bis in die intimste Privatsphäre hinein …

And finally, HARTE LANDUNG, first published as HARD LANDING in 1993…

Der Leichnam eines Mannes wird auf den Schienen einer aufgegebenen U-Bahn-Station gefunden. Der Tote wird als Neville Unruh Sealman identifiziert. Er arbeitete in einem Ingenieursbüro in Chicago und galt als fleißig, aber ungesellig. Seine Obduktion liefert ein unglaubliches Ergebnis: Sealman war kein Mensch. Der Alien musste sich jahrelang unerkannt auf der Erde durchgeschlagen und in einer primitiven, gewalttätigen Gesellschaft jeden Tag um sein Überleben gekämpft haben. Anscheinend gehörte er zur Crew eines abgestürzten Raumschiffes. Doch war er der einzige Überlebende?

Heyne has also published Budrys’s ROGUE MOON, as PROJEKT LUNA (also a Hugo Award-nominee). These novels (and three additional books) are also available in English-language eBooks, published by Open Road Media.

Ian Tregillis’s THE MECHANICAL out very soon in Italy!

Posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2016

The tremendous first novel in Ian Tregillis‘s Alchemy Wars series, THE MECHANICAL, is due to be published in Italy in two weeks! Published by Mondadori as L’OBBLIGO, here’s the synopsis…

Olanda, 1926. Sono passati ormai 250 anni da quando l’Impero olandese ha conquistato l’Europa con le sue armate di soldati meccanici, perfetti ordigni da guerra frutto di una sapienza che unisce arte dell’orologeria e alchimia. Come Jax, fedele servitore del Trono d’Ottone, schiavo dei voleri del suo padrone umano. Ma ora Jax ha deciso che sarà libero. Il suo destino si intreccia con quello di Berenice, astuta spia del Re di Francia in esilio, e di Visser, agente cattolico che vive sotto copertura nel cuore stesso dell’Impero. La lotta contro il potere degli orologiai sta per cominciare… Acclamato in tutto il mondo come un capolavoro di narrazione a cavallo dei generi, il primo romanzo della trilogia “Alchemy Wars” fonde fantascienza, spionaggio, storia d’amore, romanzo storico e distopico dai toni steampunk, apologo filosofico sul libero arbitrio, e molto altro ancora. Il risultato è una macchina narrativa perfetta e implacabile.

THE MECHANICAL is published in the UK by Orbit Books. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

My name is Jax.

That is the name granted to me by my human masters.

I am a slave.

But I shall be free.

Set in a world that might have been, of mechanical men and alchemical dreams, the new novel from Ian Tregillis confirms his place as one of the most original new voices in speculative fiction.

THE MECHANICAL was met with a storm of praise upon publication. Here’s just a small selection from the great reviews…

‘The first thing readers will say after finishing this splendid book is: “Wow.” … This is a rousing SF/fantasy adventure, with a brilliantly imagined and beautifully rendered alternate world… a major leap forward.’ — Booklist (Starred Review)

‘… launches a series with this superb alternate history filled with clockwork men and ethical questions on the nature of free will… Tregillis’s complex setting is elegantly delivered, and the rich characters and gripping story really make this tale soar.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘This is the kind of novel you’re reading on the bus or train and you actually resent reaching your destination because it means you have to pause your reading … One of the sharpest, most intelligent, hugely compelling works I’ve read this year, and I cannot wake to see where Tregillis takes this series next.’ — Forbidden Planet Blog

‘An excellent novel. Truly excellent: I have rarely found myself this gripped by a book… Tregillis has an excellent eye for characterisation, and a master’s grasp of how to build tension to a breaking point: the sheer narrative drive here, the way in which the storylines of the three point-of-view characters support and reinforce the tension in each other, is a thing of beauty.’ — Locus

The second novel in the series, THE RISING, is also out now. The third, THE LIBERATION, is due to be published in December 2016.

Orbit Books has also published Tregillis’s critically-acclaimed Milkweed Triptych in the UK: BITTER SEEDS, THE COLDEST WAR and NECESSARY EVIL.

Zeno represents Ian Tregillis in the UK and Translation, on behalf of Kay McCauley at Aurous, Inc.

Three More Classic Randall Garrett Novels Available as eBooks!

Posted on Monday, October 24th, 2016

Gollancz’s SF Gateway has recently published three more novels from Randall Garrett‘s extensive, classic backlist: UNWISE CHILD, PAGAN PASSIONS and SUPERMIND! Here are some details…

UNWISE CHILD, originally publishing in 1962…

When a super-robot named Snookums discovers how to build his own superbombs, it becomes obvious that Earth is by no means the safest place for him to be. And so Dr. Fitzhugh, his designer, and Leda Crannon, a child psychologist acting as Snookums’ nursemaid, agree to set up Operation Brainchild, a plan to transport the robot to a far distant planet.

Mike the Angel-M. R. Gabriel, Power Design-has devised the power plant that is to propel the space ship Branchell to its secret destination, complete with its unusual cargo. And, as a reserve officer in the Space Patrol, Mike is a logical replacement for the craft’s unavoidably detained engineering officer.

But once into space, the Branchell becomes the scene of some frightening events-the medical officer is murdered, and Snookums appears to be the culprit. Mike the Angel indulges himself in a bit of sleuthing, and the facts he turns up lead to a most unusual climax.

PAGAN PASSIONS, co-written by Laurence M. Janifer, and originally published in 1959…

The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece and Rome had returned to Earth — with all their awesome powers intact. Overnight, Earth was transformed. War on any scale was outlawed, along with boom-and-bust economic cycles, and prudery. No change was more startling than the face of New York, where the Empire State Building became the Tower of Zeus.

In this totally altered world, William Forrester is an acolyte of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, and a teacher of history. Only Maya Wilson, one of his students and a worshipper of Venus, Goddess of Love, had a different sort of grading in mind. Maya is the first of the many Trials of Forrester, every bit as mighty and perilous as the Labors of Hercules. In love with Gerda Symes (like him, a devotee of Athena and a frequenter of the great Temple of Pallas Athena — formerly known as the 42nd Street Library) and dedicated to the pleasures of the mind — Forrester falls under the soft, compelling pressure of soft, compelling devotees of Venus and Bacchus. He’s going to be in need of all the strength that he and his Goddess, the beautiful and intellectual Athena, can muster!

Into this sensuous strife stride the Temple Myrmidons — religious cops sworn to obey orders without question or hesitation — with a pickup order for William Forrester. Where he is taken, what happens to him, and the truly fantastic discoveries he makes about himself and the Gods and Goddesses… here are the ingredients that make up this science fiction novel of suspense, intrigue, mystery and danger!

And finally, SUPERMIND, also co-written by Laurence M. Janifer, which is the follow-up to THE IMPOSSIBLES (also available through the SF Gateway). Originally published in 1961, here’s the synopsis…

Malone lives in a world where psionic powers such as telepathy and teleportation exist. Malone must cope with them as well as an FBI Director who leaves Malone continually confused about what situation he is being asked to handle and what he is expected to do about it.

Supermind has Malone investigating a series of incidents in which people make mistakes — sometimes minor, and sometimes major – that lead to disasters. It looks like a secret cabal of psis may be behind events, influencing the behavior of those involved. Are they? And if so, why? Malone must find out if it kills him — which is a very real possibility.

Gollancz and the SF Gateway have now published 16 of Garrett’s novels in the UK; check out the covers below…

Zeno represents Randall Garrett in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Andrew Hodges’s ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA Available in Chinese and Czech!

Posted on Thursday, October 20th, 2016

Two new editions of Andrew Hodges‘s masterful ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA have surfaced! The new Czech edition, above, is published by Nakladatelství Jota. Below is the re-issued Chinese edition, published by 湖南科学技术出版社 as 艾伦·图灵传—如谜的解谜者.

The biography, on which the Oscar-winning movie THE IMITATION GAME was based, is published in the UK by Vintage Books, and in the US by Princeton University Press. The book has also been published quite widely in translations (more details can be found on Andrew’s author page).

Here’s the English-language synopsis…

The official book behind the Academy Award-winning film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley

Alan Turing was the mathematician whose cipher-cracking transformed the Second World War. Taken on by British Intelligence in 1938, as a shy young Cambridge don, he combined brilliant logic with a flair for engineering. In 1940 his machines were breaking the Enigma-enciphered messages of Nazi Germany’s air force. He then headed the penetration of the super-secure U-boat communications.

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Turing’s far-sighted plans for the digital era forged ahead into a vision for Artificial Intelligence. However, in 1952 his homosexuality rendered him a criminal and he was subjected to humiliating treatment. In 1954, aged 41, Alan Turing took his own life.

Here is a selection of the book’s various international covers…

New French Editions for Algis Budrys

Posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2016

Milady has published new French editions of two classic Algis Budrys novels! The first, pictured above, is S.O.S. TERRE, originally published in English as FALLING TORCH. Here’s the synopsis…

Exilé de force étant bébé, Michael Wireman a traversé la galaxie pour revenir sur Terre avec un but bien précis. La vengeance. Qui consistera à abattre l’Empire Galactique qui a asservi l’humanité. Mais pour cela, il est seul. Les autres humains sont au mieux impuissants, au pire inconscients. Quant aux Centaures, ils ne valent pas mieux que l’Empire Galactique.

Dépourvu de tout pouvoir, Michael n’a donc pas d’autre choix que de trouver une arme qui lui permettra de réaliser son souhait. Mais une telle chose n’est pas facile à trouver. À moins que, durant tout ce temps, cette arme se soit déjà trouvée en sa possession.

The second, LUNE FOURBE, was originally published in English as ROGUE MOON. Here’s the synopsis…

Il existe sur la Lune une chose mystérieuse, qu’on appelle la Formation – être vivant extraterrestre ou artefact, on sait seulement que cette chose repousse ou tue tous les humains qui s’en approchent. Pourtant, il est vital de tenter de comprendre et dominer cette chose, au nom de la recherche spatiale et de la colonisation du satellite. Al Barker est-il fou de se porter volontaire pour cette mission-suicide?

Both of these novels are available in English, published by Open Road Media. Here are the English-language synopses: first, for FALLING TORCH…

Twenty years after Earth is conquered by invaders from space, the exiled US government has a chance to reclaim their lost planet

2513 AD. For the past generation, since Earth was taken over by the Invaders, the US president and his cabinet have lived in exile on a planet in orbit around faraway Alpha Centauri. The Centaurian colony has become the center of the human race, reducing Earth to a backwater region in a sprawling foreign domain. But the banished American leaders still have a powerful yearning to return home. Now, President Ralph Wireman and his government finally have the financial aid and weaponry needed to retake their native planet. Wireman’s son, Michael, is parachuted to Earth as a Free Terrestrial, where the military-trained warrior is thrust into battle not between human and alien, but among factions of outlaw earthlings who demand nothing less than his total surrender.

A novel about war, politics, and assimilation, Falling Torch also presents an incisive portrait of one man’s aspirations of greatness and leadership.

And for ROGUE MOON (Hugo Award nominee for Best Novel in 1961)…

Humanity struggles to understand a killing labyrinth discovered on the Moon in this science fiction adventure about death and rebirth

A monstrous apparatus has been found on the surface of the moon. It devours and destroys in ways so incomprehensible to humans that a new language has to be invented to describe it and a new kind of thinking to understand it. So far, the human guinea pigs sent there in hopes of unraveling the murderous maze have all died terrible deaths. The most recent volunteer survived but is now on suicide watch. The ideal candidate won’t go insane even as he feels the end approaching. Al Barker has already stared into the face of death; he can handle it again. But he won’t merely endure the trauma of dying. Barker will die over and over — even as his human qualities are preserved on Earth.

With its cast of fascinating characters — like brilliant scientist Edward Hawks, who is obsessed with rebirth — Rogue Moon is a rare thriller that doesn’t just make you sweat. It makes you think.

Open Road Media also publishes MICHAELMAS, WHO?, THE FURIOUS FUTURE and HARD LANDING.

Zeno represents Algis Budrys on behalf of the Budrys Estate.

Charlaine Harris’s ALL THE LITTLE LIARS out today in UK eBook!

Posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2016

The long-awaited ninth novel in Charlaine Harris‘s Aurora Teagarden Mysteries series is out today in eBook in the UK! Published by Piatkus, here’s the synopsis…

Aurora Teagarden is basking in the news of her pregnancy when disaster strikes her small Georgia town: four kids vanish from the school soccer field in an afternoon. Aurora’s 15-year-old brother Phillip is one of them. Also gone are two of his friends, and an 11-year-old girl who was just hoping to get a ride home from soccer practice. And then there’s an even worse discovery at the kids’ last known destination, a dead body.

While the local police and sheriff’s department comb the county for the missing kids and interview everyone even remotely involved, Aurora and her new husband, true crime writer Robin Crusoe, begin their own investigation. Could the death and kidnappings have anything to do with a group of bullies at the middle school? Is Phillip’s disappearance related to Aurora’s father’s gambling debts? Or is Phillip himself, new to town and an unknown quantity, responsible for taking the other children? But regardless of the reason, as the days go by, the most important questions remain. Are the kids still alive? Who could be concealing them? Where could they be?

With Christmas approaching, Aurora is determined to find her brother… if he’s still alive.

The print edition of the novel is due to hit shelves on December 1st, 2016. (Just in time for Christmas! In case you needed inspiration…)

The first eight books in the series are published in the UK by Gollancz:

Zeno represents Charlaine Harris in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

New French Editions of Roger Zelazny’s CHRONICLES OF AMBER out now

Posted on Monday, October 10th, 2016

Roger Zelazny‘s classic Chronicles of Amber fantasy series is available in new French editions, collected into two volumes: LES PRINCES D’AMBRE Cycle 1 & Cycle 2. Published in France by Folio SF, here’s the synopsis for the first collection…

Il est amnésique.

Il est l’un des neuf princes d’Ambre, ce monde dont tous les autres ne sont que des reflets.

Son nom est Corwin et il compte bien vaincre ses frères pour monter sur le trône vacant.

This collection includes LES NEUF PRINCES D’AMBRE, LES FUSILS D’AVALON, LE SIGNE DE LA LICORNE, LA MAIN D’OBERON, and LES COURS DU CHAOS.

The second collection includes LES ATOUTS DE LA VENGEANCE, LE SANG D’AMBRE, LE SIGNE DU CHAOS, CHEVALIER DES OMBRES, and PRINCE DU CHAOS. Here’s the synopsis…

Des neuf enfants d’Oberon, c’est à présent Random qui règne sur Ambre. Corwin a disparu, on le croit mort ou privé de raison. Son fils Merlin mène depuis huit ans une existence apparemment paisible sur l’ombre Terre. Mais chaque année, à date fixe, un mystérieux personnage tente de l’assassiner.

Zeno represents Roger Zelazny in translation, on behalf of the Zelazny Estate.

Simon R. Green’s VERY IMPORTANT CORPSES Coming Soon!

Posted on Thursday, September 29th, 2016

Simon R. Green‘s third novel starring Ishmael Jones is due to hit shelves in the UK on November 30th, 2016! Published by Severn House, here’s the synopsis for VERY IMPORTANT CORPSES…

The Organisation has despatched Ishmael and his partner Penny to the shores of Loch Ness where the secretive Baphamet Group are holding their annual meeting. It’s believed an imposter has infiltrated the Group and Ishmael must find out who it is, and also discover who killed his fellow agent and why.

The novel is due out in the US on March 1st, 2017, also published by Severn House. The first two novels in the series — THE DARK SIDE OF THE ROAD and DEAD MAN WALKING — are also out now, published by Severn House. Here are some of the reviews the first two novels have received so far…

‘[A] brisk, breezy first in a new mystery series… Convincing supernatural twists [and] witty chapter titles… readers will be anxious for a sequel.’ — Publishers Weekly on THE DARK SIDE OF THE ROAD

‘I really enjoyed the book. If anything it was over too soon. The author captures the English Country Manor Murder Mystery feel very well, as he sets up pretty much everybody as a suspect… I look forward to finding out more in future volumes.’ — British Fantasy Society on THE DARK SIDE OF THE ROAD

‘Genre-blending author Green introduces another wisecracking protagonist, Ishmael Jones… Fans of the British TV series Torchwood will enjoy the irreverent, otherworldly protagonist.’ — Booklist on THE DARK SIDE OF THE ROAD

‘Not to be taken too seriously, this meld of SF and traditional hard-boiled spy fiction hints at plenty of further adventures.’ — Publishers Weekly on DEAD MAN WALKING

‘This sequel to the wonderful THE DARK SIDE OF THE ROAD takes the basic structure of a traditional English country house mystery and mixes it with a bit of supernatural horror and suspense. Richard Kadrey and E.E. Knight fans will particularly relish Green’s genre-blending novel.’ — Library Journal on DEAD MAN WALKING

Zeno represents Simon R. Green in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

Lavie Tidhar’s CENTRAL STATION out in audio tomorrow!

Posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2016

Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed latest novel, CENTRAL STATION, is released as an audiobook tomorrow! Published by Audible, it will be available in the UK and US. Here’s the synopsis…

A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. The city is literally a weed, its growth left unchecked. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.

When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’ ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap in to the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik — a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.

Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv, a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation — a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness – are just the beginning of irrevocable change. At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive… and even evolve.

The book is published in print by Tachyon Publications, and is out now. Here’s just a small selection taken from the great reviews the novel has received recently…

‘Magnificently blends literary and speculative elements in this streetwise mosaic novel set under the towering titular spaceport… Tidhar gleefully mixes classic SF concepts with prose styles and concepts that recall the best of world literature. The byways of Central Station ring with dusty life, like the bruising, bustling Cairo streets depicted by Naguib Mahfouz. Characters wrestle with problems of identity forged under systems of oppression, much as displaced Easterners and Westerners do in the novels of Orhan Pamuk. And yet this is unmistakably SF. Readers of all persuasions will be entranced.’ — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

‘A fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community. Verdict: Tidhar… changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.’ — Library Journal (Starred Review)

‘It is just this side of a masterpiece — short, restrained, lush — and the truest joy of it is in the way Tidhar scatters brilliant ideas like pennies on the sidewalk.’ — NPR Books

‘Tidhar’s prose draws the reader in, bringing this world to life with ease… Not only intelligent, it’s emotional too… Tidhar is reminiscent of an early William Gibson, not just in sharing that short and punchy style, but in his ability to create a world where the speculation is believable enough to fit seamlessly into the narrative… cement[s] Lavie Tidhar as one of science fiction’s great voices, an author who creates scenarios and characters that feel destined to become classics, ones that readers will be happy to revisit time and time again. It’s a compelling collection that mixes the epic and the intimate, one that succeeds at being profound, incredibly moving and, quite simply, stunning.’ (10/10) — Starburst

‘A marvellous, multi-faceted story that flows gently from one character to another like an intimate private tour of Tel Aviv and the spaceport at its centre.’ — SF Crowsnest

‘The stories include some of Tidhar’s most beautiful prose, and his future Tel Aviv is among the most evocative settings in recent SF… Somehow, CENTRAL STATION combines a cultural sensibility too long invisible in SF with a sensibility which is nothing but classic SF, and the result is a rather elegant suite of tales.’ — Locus

‘A fantastic mosaic novel.’ — New York Review of Science Fiction

New ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA Editions

Posted on Monday, September 26th, 2016

Above is the cover for the Korean edition of Andrew Hodges‘s ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA. Published by the East Asia Publishing Co., it is out now.

Next month, Jota are due to publish a Czech edition of the biography (pictured above).

Alan Turing se zapsal do historie jako vynikající matematik a zakladatel moderní informatiky, jehož práce na prolomení německých kódů rozhodujícím způsobem ovlivnila průběh druhé světové války. Ještě před válkou přišel s konceptem univerzálního stroje, jenž se v roce 1945 zhmotnil do prvního návrhu programovatelného počítače. Turingův smělý rozlet na prahu počítačové éry však v roce 1952 zastavilo odhalení jeho homosexuality, které z něj učinilo kriminálního odsouzence a vystavilo ho ponižujícímu zacházení. Turing, ostudně zavržený okolím, svůj život o dva roky později dobrovolně ukončil a Velká Británie tak ztratila jednoho ze svých největších vědců a myslitelů. Obsáhlá, zevrubná biografie se opírá o bohatý poznámkový aparát, text doplňuje fotografická příloha.

Hodges’s biography of the mathematician was the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning film THE IMITATION GAME, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightley. The book is published in the UK by Vintage, and in the US by Princeton University Press. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

Lavie Tidhar’s THE VIOLENT CENTURY coming soon in Taiwan!

Posted on Friday, September 23rd, 2016

Above is the cover for the Taiwanese edition of Lavie Tidhar‘s critically-acclaimed THE VIOLENT CENTURY. Published next month by Apex as 狂暴年代, here’s the English-language synopsis…

For seventy years they guarded the British Empire. Oblivion and Fogg, inseparable friends, bound together by a shared fate. Until one night in Berlin, in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a secret that tore them apart.

But there must always be an account… and the past has a habit of catching up to the present.

Now, recalled to the Retirement Bureau from which no one can retire, Fogg and Oblivion must face up to a past of terrible war and unacknowledged heroism — a life of dusty corridors and secret rooms, of furtive meetings and blood-stained fields — to answer one last, impossible question: What makes a hero?

Here’s the full-wrap image:

THE VIOLENT CENTURY is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Thomas Dunne and in Japan by 東京創元社. It is also available in limited edition, published by PS Publishing.

Here’s a small selection from the great reviews the novel has received so far…

‘A brilliantly etched phantasmagoric reconfiguring of that most sizzling of eras – the twilight 20th… This book has it all: time travel, political intrigue, hellacious history… You’ve got superheroes in the guise of regular humans, you’ve got World War II… THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a torrid tour de force!’ — James Ellroy

‘THE VIOLENT CENTURY is an excellent novel that demonstrates, once again, the impressive versatility of its author.’ — Interzone

‘It’s hard, but not impossible as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey and others have shown, to create a morally complex, artistically ambitious story based on characters whose origins are not that far removed from the simplicity of Superman, Spiderman, and their ilk. Tidhar has succeeded brilliantly in this task. THE VIOLENT CENTURY is a masterful example of alternate universe science fiction and can only add to its author’s rapidly growing reputation.’ — Los Angeles Review of Books

‘An original, engrossing fusion of noir-ish super-heroes and gritty espionage thriller… Tidhar has written a fantastic novel… Definitely recommended.’ — Civilian Reader

‘The level of detail with which Tidhar fills his novel ensures that the events he is using as his setting feel convincing. Like Le Carre’s best novels, the world of espionage isn’t glamorous or exciting; it’s a grim, cold and lonely place. The author does a lot with a relatively minimalist style… it’s impressive how much ground Tidhar covers… As well as being a wonderfully drawn and detailed historical espionage tale, THE VIOLENT CENTURY is ultimately a very human story. It’s gripping, imaginative and, finally, moving.’ — SciFi Now

‘THE VIOLENT CENTURY has everything to look for in a novel – a wonderfully crafted plot, strong realistic characters, an atmosphere that is unnervingly real – all written in a style that insists on the reader’s full attention… one of the best books I’ve ever read.’ — Fantasy Faction

‘Tidhar brings us a tale of individuals wrestling with questions of their nature, told on a grand scale, on the stage of the historical shifts that exist in living memory, and he does an outstanding job of it, weaving together historical fact with stunningly deceptive world building… Tidhar shows a deft hand with research… This is a dark, brooding book, one that you want to gnaw on, savour, slowly, and enjoy, but it has its light moments, too… He’s dealing with the grandest schemes on the largest of backdrops in time and place, and this level of awe-inspiring craft places him firmly within the highest tier of writers working today, no longer an emerging writer, but a master.’ — British Fantasy Society

Lavie’s most recent novels are the critically-acclaimed CENTRAL STATION, published by Tachyon Publications; and the award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING, published by Hodder (UK) and Melville House (US).

Cover & Details: INTO THE GUNS by William C. Dietz

Posted on Friday, September 16th, 2016

Next month, Titan Books will publish the first novel in William C. Dietz‘s new post-apocalyptic/dystopian series, America Rising. INTO THE GUNS will arrive on shelves on October 4th. Here’s the synopsis…

America is rising from the ashes of a global catastrophe, but in the wasteland that was once the USA, only the strong can survive…

On May Day, 2018, sixty meteors entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded around the globe with a force greater than a nuclear blast. Earthquakes and tsunamis followed. Then China attacked Europe, Asia, and the United States in the belief the disaster was an act of war.

Washington D.C. was a casualty of the meteor onslaught that decimated the nation’s leadership and left the surviving elements of the armed forces to try and restore order as American society fell apart. As refugees across America band together and engage in open warfare with the military over scarce resources, a select group of individuals representing the surviving corporate structure makes a power play to rebuild the country in a free market image as The New Confederacy…

Titan also publishes Dietz’s urban fantasy Mutant Files series in the UK: DEADEYE, REDZONE and GRAVEYARD. They also publish the author’s Legion of the Damned military sci-fi series.

Zeno represents William C. Dietz in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York.

New Japanese covers for Ian McDonald’s THE DERVISH HOUSE

Posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2016

Ian McDonald‘s critically-acclaimed, award-winning THE DERVISH HOUSE has been given a new cover in Japan! Published as 旋舞の千年都市, in two volumes, by Tokyo Sogensha, here’s the synopsis…

ナノテク革命と低炭素経済で空前の活況に沸く近未来。犠牲者ゼロの奇妙な自爆テロの真相とは？　テロ現場にいた謎のドローンを追う少年、ＡＩが飛び交う金融市場で世紀の一大詐欺を企むトレーダー、伝説の「蜜人」を探す美術商… 東洋と西洋、過去と未来が混じりあう巨大都市を舞台に、現代ＳＦ随一の実力派作家が、壮大にして緻密な未来世界のヴィジョンを描き出す。

キャンベル記念賞、英国ＳＦ協会賞ダブル受賞の至近未来ＳＦ！

THE DERVISH HOUSE is published in the UK by Gollancz, and in the US by Pyr Books. It has also been published widely in translation. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone it seems is after a piece of Turkey. But the shock waves from this random act of twenty-first-century pandemic terrorism will ripple further and resonate louder than just Enginsoy Square.

Welcome to the world of The Dervish House — the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union, a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. With a population pushing one hundred million, and Istanbul alone swollen to fifteen million, Turkey is the largest, most populous, and most diverse nation in the EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It’s a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and central Asia.

The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core — the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself — that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama, and a ticking clock of a thriller.

As with all of Ian’s novels, THE DERVISH HOUSE has been showered with praise from a wide array of reviewers and peers. Here’s just a small taste…

‘A lush, complex and hugely entertaining novel.’ — Guardian

‘A writer with an unerring instinct for finding resonance between theme and location… a rich and assured novel that, like much of Ken MacLeod’s recent work, revels in the shiny precision of the airport tech-thriller, yet insists on putting forward disquieting ideas rather than offering all-too-neat reassurances that you can somehow put escaped djinns back in bottles. This is as good as contemporary literary SF gets.’ — SFX (5* Review)

‘I know what to expect from Ian McDonald: broad vistas, intricately imagined futures, poetic language that transports and delights, a blend of mysticism and science that thrills and moves. But no matter how much foreknowledge I bring to a new Ian McDonald, I am always, always startled and thrilled by the exciting, moving epic story I find inside… To read McDonald is to fall in love with a place and to become drunk with it… I you’ve never read him, you’re in for a treat. If you’re a fan like me, you’ll be delighted anew. What a wonderful, wonderful book.’ — BoingBoing

‘Thrilling… A master in his own right, McDonald has written some of the best SF of the last fifteen years… a mosaic of a story that can be admired for its finely-wrought pieces but not fully appreciated until the book is finished and looked at again from some distance. The biggest part of the thrill is wondering how the characters will inevitably intersect… Ian McDonald has crafted a gorgeously lush novel, oozing with exciting, relevant ideas, a love letter to the Queen of Cities, to all cities, really.’ — Tor.com

‘McDonald’s new book is a conscientious attempt to write the Other from the inside and accept the possibility that the Anglo world may be a sideline… a brilliant, jewelled machine of a novel in which lives trigger events in other lives, in a sequence that skirts chaos and disaster, but ends with gorgeous order.’ — Independent

Ian’s latest novel is the critically-acclaimed LUNA: NEW MOON, the first in a proposed trilogy — published by Gollancz in the UK, and Tor Books in the US.

Swedish Edition of ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA out now!

Posted on Friday, September 9th, 2016

Andrew Hodges‘s critically-acclaimed, bestselling ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA, is available in Swedish! Published by Fri Tanke as ALAN TURING: DATAGENI, KODKNÄCKARE OCH GAYIKON, here’s the synopsis…

Den brittiska matematikern Alan Turing räddade de allierade från nazisterna, uppfann datorn, grundade forskningsfältet artificiell intelligens och förekom gayrörelsen med flera decennier – och allt detta innan fyrtioett års ålder då han tog sitt eget liv.

Andrew Hodges mångfacetterade och hyllande biografi över datavetenskapens grundare är ett djupgående porträtt av ett extraordinärt liv och intellekt. I en rörande berättelse om matematik, datorer, kryptografi och homofobi fångar Hodges både den inre och den yttre dramatiken i Turings liv.

Hodges beskriver hur Turings revolutionerande idé om en universell maskin redan 1936 lade grunden för den moderna datorn och hur Turing med sin elektroniska design förverkligande samma idé 1945.

Boken beskriver också hur detta arbete direkt relaterade till Turings nyckelroll i arbetet med att knäcka tyska kryptokoder under andra världskriget, en vetenskaplig bedrift som var väsentlig för att möjliggöra de allierades seger.

Men det är också en tragisk berättelse om en man som trots sitt stora bidrag till världsfreden och vetenskapen blev arresterad, och tvingades genomgå en förödmjukande behandling, bara för att han ville leva ett ärligt liv i ett samhälle som betraktade homosexualitet som ett brott.

Boken blev film 2015, med Benedict Cumberbatch och Keira Knightley i huvudrollerna.

ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA is published in the UK by Vintage, in the US by Princeton University Press, and has been published in translation many times. See Andrew’s author page for details, and please do get in touch for more information about rights available. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

But his vision went far beyond this achievement. Before the war he had invented the concept of the universal machine, and in 1945 he turned this into the first design for a digital computer.

The Oscar-winning The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley was based on ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA.

Czech Edition of A MAN LIES DREAMING out next month!

Posted on Monday, September 5th, 2016

Lavie Tidhar‘s award-winning A MAN LIES DREAMING is due to out at the end of October in Czech. Published by Argo as MUŽ LEŽÍ A SNÍ, here’s the synopsis…

Druhá polovina 30. let 20. století. Evropa je v krizi a Velká Británie se potýká s přílivem uprchlíků. V Německu totiž došlo k Pádu, moci se chopili komunisté, a tak boháči i fašisté, nechtějí-li skončit v trestaneckém táboře, musí utéct za hranice. Většinou se rychle vzpamatují a dál se věnují tomu, na co mají talent, třeba obchodu nebo organizovanému zločinu, ale jistý pan Wolf je muž s ideály, hnusí se mu všeobecný morální úpadek, a zatímco živoří v zaměstnání soukromého detektiva, sní o tom, že už brzy vydá další část svého životního díla, knihy nazvané Můj boj.

Pravda, mezitím si ještě bude muset vytrpět něco sexuálního ponížení v rukou zdegenerovaných prostitutek či špinavé Židovky a párkrát dostane pořádnou nakládačku, ale to muže jeho formátu nezlomí. Zatím v jiném čase a na jiném místě leží muž a sní…

A MAN LIES DREAMING is published in the UK by Hodder, in the US by Melville House, and in Italy by Frassinelli. Here’s the English-language synopsis…

Deep in the heart of history’s most infamous concentration camp, a man lies dreaming. His name is Shomer, and before the war he was a pulp fiction author. Now, to escape the brutal reality of life in Auschwitz, Shomer spends his nights imagining another world — a world where a disgraced former dictator now known only as Wolf ekes out a miserable existence as a low-rent PI in London’s grimiest streets.

An extraordinary story of revenge and redemption, A Man Lies Dreaming is the unforgettable testament to the power of imagination.

Lavie’s latest book, CENTRAL STATION, is published by Tachyon Publications. His previous work includes the critically-acclaimed novels THE VIOLENT CENTURY, the Bookman Histories trilogy, and multiple short stories and novellas.