Ian McDonald’s brilliant multiple worlds steampunk-y YA novel PLANESRUNNER, first published in the US by Pyr, has just come out in the UK from Jo Fletcher Books and is getting some stonking reviews.  Starburst just gave it a measly 9 out of 10, and offered up some fine advice to TV prospectors ‘… Take note, BBC execs – if you’re wanting to fill in Saturday tea-time schedules in the long waits between seasons of Who, you could do a lot worse than to mine this rich seam. It has same mixture of ideas, adventure and, above all, heart, that makes that show so successful. And it’d sure as hell beat the arse off Primeval.‘

There is not one you. There are many yous. There is not one world. There are many worlds. Ours is one among billions of parallel earths.

When Everett Singh’s scientist father is kidnapped from the streets of London, he leaves young Everett a mysterious app on his computer. Suddenly, this teenager has become the owner of the most valuable object in the multiverse—the Infundibulum—the map of all the parallel earths, and there are dark forces in the Ten Known Worlds who will stop at nothing to get it. They’ve got power, authority, the might of ten planets—some of them more technologically advanced than our Earth—at their fingertips. He’s got wits, intelligence, and a knack for Indian cooking.

To keep the Infundibulum safe, Everett must trick his way through the Heisenberg Gate that his dad helped build and go on the run in a parallel Earth. But to rescue his dad from Charlotte Villiers and the sinister Order, this Planesrunner’s going to need friends. Friends like Captain Anastasia Sixsmyth, her adopted daughter, Sen, and the crew of the airship Everness.

Can they rescue Everett’s father and get the Infundibulum to safety? The game is afoot!