… and so appropriately, a number of our clients have landed on Best SFF of 2015 lists this year. We thought we’d take this opportunity to share some of them.
Ben Aaronovitch‘s FOXGLOVE SUMMER was selected by iTunes Germany as Best Fantasy of the year! Published by DTV in Germany as FINGERHUT-SOMMER, it’s published in the UK by Gollancz and North America by DAW Books. Here’s the synopsis…
In the fifth of his bestselling series Ben Aaronovitch takes Peter Grant out of whatever comfort zone he might have found and takes him out of London – to a small village in Herefordshire where the local police are reluctant to admit that there might be a supernatural element to the disappearance of some local children. But while you can take the London copper out of London you can’t take the London out of the copper.
Travelling west with Beverley Brook, Peter soon finds himself caught up in a deep mystery and having to tackle local cops and local gods. And what’s more all the shops are closed by 4pm…
The fourth novel in Peter V. Brett‘s best-selling Demon Cycle series, THE SKULL THRONE, has been selected by BuzzFeed as one of the best Fantasy novels of the year. The novel ‘expands and deepens his endlessly fascinating and increasingly complex world of humans beset by powerful demons who prey on them at night’. The novel was also selected by Waterstones as one of their favourite Fantasy novels of the year. Published in the UK by Voyager, here’s the synopsis…
The Skull Throne of Krasia stands empty.
Built from the skulls of fallen generals and demon princes, it is a seat of honour and ancient, powerful magic, keeping the demon corelings at bay. From atop the throne, Ahmann Jardir was meant to conquer the known world, forging its isolated peoples into a unified army to rise up and end the demon war once and for all.
But Arlen Bales, the Painted Man, stood against this course, challenging Jardir to a duel he could not in honour refuse. Rather than risk defeat, Arlen cast them both from a precipice, leaving the world without a saviour, and opening a struggle for succession that threatens to tear the Free Cities of Thesa apart.
In the south, Inevera, Jardir’s first wife, must find a way to keep their sons from killing one another and plunging their people into civil war as they strive for enough glory to make a claim on the throne.
In the north, Leesha Paper and Rojer Inn struggle to forge an alliance between the duchies of Angiers and Miln against the Krasians before it is too late.
Caught in the crossfire is the duchy of Lakton – rich and unprotected, ripe for conquest.
All the while, the corelings have been growing stronger, and without Arlen and Jardir there may be none strong enough to stop them.
Only Renna Bales may know more about the fate of the missing men, but she, too, has disappeared…
William Gibson‘s THE PERIPHERAL was selected as one of the Best Science Fiction novels of the year by Waterstones. Published in the UK by Penguin, here’s the synopsis…
Flynne Fisher lives in rural near-future America where jobs are scarce and veterans from the wars are finding it hard to recover. She scrapes a living doing some freelance online game-playing, participating in some pretty weird stuff. Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things though are good for the haves, and there aren’t many have-nots left.
Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the distant past can be real badass.
Ian McDonald‘s LUNA: NEW MOON was selected by Adam Roberts for the Guardian’s Best Science Fiction novels of the year: ‘Ian McDonald’s cut-throat colonised moon in Luna (Gollancz) is not the sort of place you’d want to live, but it certainly makes for a gripping narrative.’ Niall Alexander also selected LUNA among his best novels of the year, for Tor.com., and it was picked by Waterstones as one of the Best Science Fiction novels of the year. LUNA is published in the UK by Gollancz and in the US by Tor Books. Here’s the synopsis…
A corporate SF thriller and the deepest evocation yet of the terrors and rigours of life on the moon.
The Moon wants to kill you.
She has a thousand ways to do it. The bitter cold of vaccum. The lethal sheet of radiation. Choking dust as old as the Earth. Your weakening bones…
Or you could run out of money for water. Or air. Or simply run foul of one of the Five Dragons: the corporations that rule the Moon and control its vast resources. But you stay, because the moon can make you richer than you can imagine. For as long as you can stay alive…
Victor Milán‘s THE DINOSAUR LORDS was also selected by BuzzFeed as one of the best Fantasy novels of the year. Indeed, they veritably gushed: ‘High fantasy with dinosaurs. Is that enough to make you want to read it? Here, let me put it another way… EPIC BATTLES BETWEEN HEROIC KNIGHTS, AND THEY’RE ALL RIDING DINOSAURS. What’s not to like about that? It’s as crazy and fun as it sounds.’ Published in Brazil by Darkside Books as OS SENHORES DOS DINOSSAUROS, here’s the English-language synopsis…
A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. Colossal plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus; terrifying meat-eaters like Allosaurus, and the most feared of all, Tyrannosaurus rex. Giant lizards swim warm seas. Birds (some with teeth) share the sky with flying reptiles that range in size from bat-sized insectivores to majestic and deadly Dragons.
Two of Brand Sanderson‘s novels have landed on best-of lists: the fifth Mistborn novel, SHADOWS OF SELF, has been selected as one of Waterstones‘ best Fantasy books of the year, as well as one of BuzzFeed’s Best Fantasy novels of 2015 — ‘delivers more excitement, adventure, and magic in a newly industrialized world that is as richly realized as any of Sanderson’s creations.’ In addition, FIREFIGHT, the second Reckoners novel, has been picked as one of BuzzFeed’s Best Science Fiction novels of the year — ‘incredibly satisfying YA trilogy about a world ruled by insane super-villains continues to delight… lots of action and plot in a rare sequel that doesn’t suffer from a sophomore slump.’ Both novels are published in the UK by Gollancz. Here’s the synopsis for SHADOWS OF SELF…
It is more than 300 years after the events of the The Final Empire shaped Scadrial. Waxillium Ladrian has returned to the capital city of Elendel from the far flung roughs. Elendel is crisscrossed by canals and railways and towers reach for the sky but this is still a city of dangers and of magic; Allomancy and Feruchemy can still change the world. Wax faces many more adventures.
Ian Tregillis‘s THE MECHANICAL has landed on Waterstones’ Best Fantasy list, and BuzzFeed’s Best SF novels of the year, described thus: ‘as enthralling as it is imaginative.’ The novel was also selected as one of the Speculative Herald‘s best books of the year. The sequel in the Alchemy Wars series, THE RISING, was selected as one of Amazon’s Best SFF of December 2015. The novels are published by Orbit Books. Here’s the synopsis for the first novel…
A thrilling and heart-breaking tale of one individual’s struggle for freedom…
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.
Zeno represents Peter V. Brett and Brandon Sanderson in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of the JABberwocky Literary Agency in New York; William Gibson in the UK and Commonwealth, on behalf of Martha Millard at Sterling Lord Literistic; and Ian Tregillis and Victor Milan in the UK and in translation, on behalf of Kay McCauley at Aurous, Inc.